Morgan St. Partners, LLC v. Chi. Climbing Gym Co., LLC

Morgan St. Partners, LLC v. Chi. Climbing Gym Co., LLC

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

This case arises from the fall-out between a landlord and tenant due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Plaintiff Morgan Street Partners, LLC leases a commercial property in Chicago to Defendant Chicago Climbing Gym Company, LLC, which operates a climbing gym on that property. Co-Defendant Brooklyn Boulders serves as the lease guarantor. When the pandemic hit Illinois, the State of Illinois and City of Chicago forced Chicago Climbing Gym to shut down its operations for months and then reopen at reduced capacity. Chicago Climbing Gym's business took a hit, so it stopped paying rent during the complete shutdown and started paying only reduced rent once allowed to reopen. Plaintiff claims that Defendants' failures to pay full rent constitute a breach of contract, while Defendants counter [*2]  that a force majeure clause in the parties' lease agreement justified their actions and excused their payment obligations. Plaintiff has moved for summary judgment [40]. For the reasons explained below, this Court denies Plaintiff's motion.

I. Background

This Court takes the following facts from Plaintiff's statement of facts [42], Defendants' response to Plaintiff's statement of facts [50], and Defendants' statement of additional facts [51]. Because Plaintiff did not respond to Defendants' statement of additional facts [51], this Court deems those facts admitted. Magee v. McDonald's Corp., No. 16-CV-5652, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 233568, 2019 WL 10447014, at *3 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 28, 2019); Rivera v. Guevara, 319 F. Supp. 3d 1004, 1017 (N.D. Ill. 2018).¹

A. Lease Agreement

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