L & M Corporation v. Grant Loader

OAKS, Justice: A lessor appeals an award of damages of his lessee for breach of a right of first refusal. This appeal turns on whether the plaintiff-lessee assigned his right of first refusal before he brought this action for its breach. Grant Loader gave a 5-year lease on a building and real property to L & M Corporation for a Chicken Time restaurant. The written lease gave L & M a right of first refusal upon Loader's sale of the premises. Within a month, L & M orally leased the property to Thomas Hoskins, who had been manager for L & M and who had conducted much of the original lease negotiation with Loader. Both Hoskins and L & M understood Hoskins' oral lease to be for the 5-year duration of the written lease from Loader.