Anais Enterprises v. CREF3 Warner Owner, LLC CA4/3

FACTS

I.

NEW OWNER’S UNLAWFUL DETAINER ACTION

A. Change in Ownership and the Purported Rent Forbearance Agreement In 2002, Anais entered a lease for commercial real property in Santa Ana (the property) with a prior owner. The lease terms included a seven-year lease extension option that Anais could exercise by March 2023. The lease also included two paragraphs covering conditional payment scenarios, which we quote from further below. In April 2022 (all dates without mention of the year will refer to 2 2022), Greg Pearson, a member of CREF3’s parent company, met with Charlie Jakstis, the son of Anais’s general manager. According to Jakstis, Pearson made comments that threatened Anais’s leasehold interests. The following month, CREF3 became the owner and assumed the rights and obligations of the lease. In May, counsel for CREF3 sent Anais’s counsel an introductory letter that requested delivery of a purported rent 3 forbearance agreement. Counsel was referencing Anais’s counsel’s claim that Anais had entered an agreement with the prior owner, “for [Anais] to pay . . . six . . . installments of COVID back rent when requested.” CREF3’s position was that, as part of purchasing the…