Tsemetzin

In this case the plaintiff, Steven Tsemetzin, appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of the defendant Coast Federal Savings and Loan Association (hereafter, Coast Federal). Plaintiff seeks to recover disputed and unpaid rental arrearages allegedly due under a written lease agreement back to 1982. Coast Federal claims that the statute of limitations has long since run on all of plaintiff’s claims and that a repudiation and termination of the lease obligations of Coast Federal’s assignee by the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) also extinguished its liability.

While we agree that plaintiff cannot expand the limitations period by characterizing Coast Federal’s lease obligations as “open book” items, we do conclude that plaintiff is at least entitled to seek recovery of the unpaid arrearage for the four years preceding the filing of the complaint. We also conclude that the termination of the lease obligations of Coast Federal’s assignee by the RTC can have no legal impact on Coast Federal’s continuing lease obligations which were expressly assumed under the terms of both the lease and the assignment. We therefore reverse and remand with directions.

Factual and…