Siarah Atlanta HWY, LLC v. New Era Ventures, LLC

New Era Ventures, LLC (New Era) (defendant) agreed to lease a commercial property from Siarah Atlanta HWY, LLC (Siarah) (plaintiff). The lease included a lease-purchase option providing that the tenant had a right to purchase the property if the tenant was not in default, if the tenant had leased the property continuously from a certain date, and if the tenant provided written notice at least 90 days prior to closing. On January 27, 2017, New Era notified Siarah that it was exercising its option to purchase pursuant to the lease. New Era scheduled the sale closing for May 12, 2017. On the same day, Siarah sent a letter to New Era, seeking to terminate the lease. Under the terms of the lease, termination was to be effective 30 days after Siarah notified New Era, so the attempted termination would have been effective on February 26, 2017. Later, Siarah sued New Era for possession of the property to which New Era filed a counterclaim. New Era alleged that Siarah had breached the lease contract and sought specific performance of the lease’s purchase-option provision. The trial court found that New Era was entitled to specific performance. Siarah appealed, arguing that New Era could not exercise its option because Siarah had terminated the lease; that New Era did not validly exercise the option because it did not complete its purchase before the option’s expiration date of January 31, 2017; and that New Era was required to tender the purchase price when it exercised the option or, alternatively, that New Era was required to tender the purchase price to sue for specific performance.