Old common law doctrines are not dormant and may enable tenants to avoid the payment of rent due to government shutdown orders during the pandemic. As more cases are tried, a jurisprudence regarding these doctrines and their applicability to the pandemic is being developed. In this episode, Mark Johnson, partner and co-chair of Seyfarth’s Real Estate Litigation practice, joins hosts James O’Brien and Eric Greenberg to discuss frustration of purpose and force majeure as applied by the court in UMNV 205-207 Newbury LLC v. Caffé Nero Americas Inc., where a landlord sued its retail tenant for damages in order to recover unpaid rent for the period during which the tenant was closed due to a COVID-19 shutdown order in Massachusetts.

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