Thrifty Payless v. Mariners Mile Gateway CA4/3

FACTS

The facts of the underlying dispute are laid out in some detail in Thrifty I, supra, 185 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1053-1060, and we shall not repeat them in any detail here. Suffice to say that Rite Aid entered into a lease with Mariners for a new drug store at the Newport Beach site. The contract, signed in 2005 (id. at p. 1055), included a clause that unless the lease began by June 30, 2008, either party could terminate “for any reason.” (Id. at p. 1053.) Numerous problems arose, and Rite Aid filed suit in December 2006, alleging anticipatory breach of the lease, among other things. (Id. at p. 1057.) In April 2007, Rite Aid filed an application for a preliminary injunction against Mariners, seeking to “preserve the status quo.” On May 17, the court granted the

2 application. The minute order stated Mariners was “prevented from (1) leasing all or part of the property located at NWC W. PCH and Dover Drive (‘Lease Property’) to any entity other than [Rite Aid] during the course of this litigation, or (2) developing, improving altering, or constructing the Lease Property in any way inconsistent or not in accordance with the lease agreement that is the subject of this litigation.”…