[WSBARP] Abandonment of commercial lease in King County and possible prejudgment attachment in Pierce County?

[Nicholas Pleasants]

Hi Stephen,
Here are a few issues to consider:

  1.  If this Complaint is just breach of contract, then the location of the premises should not be controlling. The location of the premises is material to an eviction or ejectment. In this case, you are just trying to collect back rent (and perhaps damage to the premises), so it is more appropriately a commercial litigation that is only tangentially related to real property.
  2.  Does the Lease have a venue clause? Somewhat rare, but sometimes a contract will state venue is in, e.g., King County Superior Court.
  3.  Venue is typically based on the Defendant’s residence. If the Defendants are Pierce County residents, it will be difficult for them to argue that Pierce County is an improper venue.
That’s all I have from my issue-spotting days in Contracts class. Hope that helps.

Best,
Nick

Nicholas Pleasants
Pleasants Law Firm, P.S.
2300 130th Ave NE, Suite A-101
Bellevue, WA 98005-1755
(425) 615-7070 tel/fax
nick at pleasantslaw.com<mailto:nick at pleasantslaw.com>
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From: <wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> on behalf of Stephen Crane <scrane at cranedunham.com>
Reply-To: WSBA Real Property Listserv <WSBARP at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Date: Monday, June 1, 2020 at 10:13 AM
To: WSBA Real Property Listserv <WSBARP at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBARP] Abandonment of commercial lease in King County and possible prejudgment attachment in Pierce County?

Listmates:

Our client is the landlord of office space in King County that has 8 years to go on a 10 year lease.
The tenants stopped paying rent in January, and closed their office and abandoned the property in March.

The tenants signed the lease personally, and also signed as guarantors.
The tenants just listed their Pierce County home for sale, and may be leaving the area.
The client is interested in seeking a prejudgment attachment on the tenants' personal residence, as that may be the only asset available to pay any judgment.

As far as I know, the real property in Pierce County is the only real property owned by the tenants, and is also their principal residence.

If there is jurisdiction in Pierce County, that is where I want to file the lawsuit, clearly, but the guarantee by the tenants is for a lease of real property in King County.
Any thoughts about whether there the tenants can successfully object to jurisdiction of the lawsuit being first and/or solely filed in Pierce County (and the landlord seeking a prejudgment attachment), under the above scenario?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Steve Crane

Stephen J. Crane

CRANE DUNHAM PLLC

3600 15th Ave West, Suite 200

Seattle, WA 98119

phone: (206) 292-9090<tel:%28206%29%20292-9090>  email: scrane at cranedunham.com<mailto:scrane at cranedunham.com>

fax: (206) 292-9736<tel:%28206%29%20292-9736>     web: www.cranedunham.com<http://www.cranedunham.com/>

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