I wish I'd have thought of this as a question for a first year law school exam! It's a great one.Justice Willhite raises the issue concisely:"The primary question presented in this case is: Can a landlord be held liable to a commercial tenant for damage to the tenant’s property resulting from an alleged sewer backup when the tenant (who had a month-to-month tenancy in the premises after her lease expired) had stopped paying rent, had been served (but failed to comply) with a three-day notice to pay rent or quit, and had been named in an unlawful detainer action filed before the alleged sewer backup occurred?"Oooh! Good one. I could definitely see law students coming up with good arguments on both sides. Ditto for actual lawyers.Here's how the Court of Appeal answers the question:"We find that the month-to-month tenancy was terminated by the tenant’s failure to pay rent coupled with the landlord’s…
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