Lawyers insist lease terms fulfilled
Firm files response to lawsuit over office rent at LR building
The Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings fired back in court Friday in a dispute with its landlord over $400,000 in rent the law firm has refused to pay because of the condition of its office building.
The California owner of the Bank of America building in downtown Little Rock, 200 Capitol West LLC, wants to kick out the 60-lawyer firm, its largest tenant, over the firm’s refusal to make the full payments of about $65,000 a month for the six floors the law firm occupies of the 24-story skyscraper it has called home for 50 years.
In a bid to remain in the building, the law firm negotiated a new lease with 200 Capitol West in which the company agreed to make certain repairs to the building and if it didn’t, the lease contained language that allowed the law firm to “abate” a portion of the rent.
Repairs that were made didn’t meet the standard set out in the lease nor were they sufficient for what is considered Class A office space, the law firm said.
The building’s owner said repairs have been made and some have been delayed in arranging to get contractors and parts. It wants Circuit Judge Herbert Wright Jr. to make the law firm pay up and vacate the premises, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
In its response filed Friday, the law firm insisted that it has paid all the rent owed under the terms of the agreement and therefore isn’t in violation of its lease and shouldn’t be kicked out.
“Here, this is a breach of contract case,” its attorneys said in the pleadings. “WLJ has exercised its contractual right to abate a portion of the rent payments as a result of
the plaintiff’s failure to make the repairs required by the negotiated third lease amendment between WLJ and plaintiff where WLJ agreed to extend its lease term in reliance on plaintiff’s promise to make certain repairs.”
According to the 200 Capitol West lawsuit, the law firm has abated 30% of its lease for the landlord violating each of the three paragraphs at issue in the lease, which in some months amount to 90% of its lease payment, or $58,198.50 a month.
Meanwhile, the building remains in unacceptable condition, according to the law firm’s pleadings.
The law firm alleges that the owner replaced the building’s boilers, but according to an outside expert, they have less than 50% of the capacity of the boilers they replaced.
As a result, the boilers were unable to heat the building sufficiently during a cold snap in February and pipes on the first four floors “froze and burst, causing substantial damage to the building, including common areas referred to in the lease.”
The common areas damaged by the burst pipes haven’t been repaired, according to the law firm’s response.
The chillers, meanwhile, often don’t work in the summer, it said.
As recently as July 22, the cooling system failed as did an elevator that briefly trapped law firm employees, the response said. The elevators, the firm said, have expired permits.
Further, there are “chunks of concrete falling from the ceilings in the attached parking garage, cracks and pits in the floors, and, most recently, a large hole opening in the exit ramp from the parking garage,” according to the law firm’s response.
Wright Lindsey & Jennings, which is represented by three of its own attorneys and the Shults Law Firm, asked the judge to dismiss the the lawsuit and award it attorney fees.
In a separate pleading, it asked Wright to made a determination that the firm has complied with the lease and cannot be removed from the building.
The case is 60CV-21-4924.