The defendants brought a motion to discharge a Certificate of Pending Litigation (CPL) obtained ex parte by the plaintiff.
The plaintiff, a commercial tenant whose barbershop was damaged by fire, sued for $1.2 million in damages after the landlord terminated the lease.
Although the plaintiff claimed only damages and not an interest in land, the lease contained a clause limiting the landlord's liability to their interest in the property.
The Master held that this clause effectively created an interest in land by restricting the plaintiff's potential recovery to the property itself.
The Master ordered that the CPL would remain in place unless the defendants waived reliance on the limitation of liability clause and undertook to provide 30 days' notice of any sale of the property.
