Skip to content
Jeremy-Telman
ContractsProf Blog
Official Blog of the AALS Section on Contracts

A Lesson in Contract Drafting to Trump All Others

By ContractsProf Blog

Trumpbuildings What is the drafting lesson to trump all others?  The usual: one size does not fit all.  

AmLaw Daily reports that Trump Corporation leases space in one of the co-op buildings it constructed in New York in the 1980’s.  The co-op board of that building (Trump Plaza Owners, Inc.) is looking to evict Trump Corporation, alleging it is nearly $87,000 in arrears.  
At the helm of the effort to remove Trump from the building is the president of the co-op, Andrew Perel (his day job is as an environmental law partner at Steptoe & Johnson).  And here’s where Mr. Perel provides the lesson: 

“The funny part of it is what one of his internallawyers must have done years ago,” Perel says. “Normally Trump is thelandlord, not the tenant. So what they did is they took one of their leases andjust changed the names. And so it’s not a very favorable lease if you’re thetenant.”

* * * The co-op gave notice ofdefault to Trump Corporation on April 10, but the company still didn’t pay itsrent. The lease terminated May 6, five days past the deadline required to paythe rent and avoid termination.

“If you don’t pay the rent when Donald Trump is yourlandlord, he comes down on you like a hammer,” Perel says. “Well loand behold, he signed a lease that was his own lease and he’s the tenant. Andhe missed April and May.

Maybe the other lesson is: what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.

[Meredith R. Miller]

Posted in:
In the News