By: Adam Lau
St. John’s Law Student
American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review Staff
In In re Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., a bankruptcy court held that rejection of a lease by a debtor constituted a pre-petition breach of the lease and was not a termination of the lease. The debtor, Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., entered into a lease agreement with TST/Commerz East Building (“TST”) that was set to expire on December 31, 2020. Two years into the lease, debtor subleased a part of the space to Maritime Overseas Corporation (“Maritime”). After filing voluntary petitions under chapter 11, the debtor and Maritime entered into a stipulation with the assignee of TST whereby the debtor and Maritime agreed to reject the lease and the sublease. Maritime then vacated the premises and proceeded to file a claim against debtor for $30,788.32 for return of its security deposit under the sublease, but amended its claim, adding $367,858 for damages from rejection of the sublease, including moving expenses, increased rent, electricity, and legal fees relating to Maritime’s relocation. The debtor objected to the amended claim, and asked the court to disallow the claim for rejection damages and to limit the recovery to the amount of the security deposit. The debtor argued that the rejection of the lease constituted a termination of the lease, which would, under Clause 2 in the sublease, preclude Maritime from recovering rejection damages. Clause 2 provided that, “this Sublease shall terminate (in whole or in part, as applicable) on the date of such termination as if such date had been specified in this Sublease as the Expiration Date and Tenant shall have no liability to Subtenant with respect to such termination.” The debtor relied on Chatlos Systems, Inc. v. Kaplan, where the court held that a debtor’s rejection of a non-residential lease resulted in termination of the lease. In response, Maritime argued the Bankruptcy Code establishes that the rejection of the overlease was not a termination of the lease but merely a pre-petition breach. The court was not persuaded by the debtor’s argument, finding that the Chatlos case was not applicable because that case involved a lessee of the debtor who chose to remain in possession of the property, whereas Maritime did not elect to remain on the premises. However, while the bankruptcy court agreed with Maritime’s argument that the rejection of the lease constituted a breach and not termination, Maritime was still precluded from claiming rejection damages because Clause 22(j) in the sublease provided that the “subtenant shall look solely to Tenant's interests in the Lease to enforce Tenant's obligations hereunder and shall not seek any damages against Tenant or any of the Tenant's Related Parties.”