White v. Connelly

Citations

• 223 Pa. 359
• 72 A. 637
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 540

Syllabus

<p>Landlord and tenant — Lease—Rebuilding by landlord — Rental—Defense.</p> <p>Where a landlord agrees to tear down an old hotel building and build a new one in accordance with certain plans, and to give to the tenant a lease for the new building for a term of years, and before the new building is completed a lease is made by which the tenant is not to pay rent for it until two weeks after the building was entirely completed as certified by the architect, and the defendant forthwith takes possession, and subsequently the architect certifies that the building is complete, the tenant cannot in an action for the rent allege that the building was not constructed according to the plans nor claim to set off sums of money expended for the removal of imperfections in the building. In such a case the tenant need not have taken the building if it did not conform to the plans, and could have held the plaintiff in damages for the breach of his contract. As to the imperfections in the building existing before the date of the lease, she must have seen them equally with the landlord; and as to those which were created afterwards she was bound by her contract as to the architect’s certificate.</p>