## Facts

- In 1977, Robert J. Donovan leased a house in Potsdam, New York, to Louis (Lou) Gerrish for $100 per month using a printed form with handwritten additions.
- The lease term stated it would last for “quiet enjoyment” beginning May 1, 1977 and would end when “Lou Gerrish has the privilege of termination this agreement at a date of his own choice.”
- The lease included a landlord reentry clause for nonpayment, modified by a handwritten 30-day grace period for rent payment.
- Gerrish took possession, resided continuously, and paid rent without dispute until Donovan’s death in November 1981.
- Donovan’s executor, David R. Garner, served a notice to quit and began a summary eviction proceeding, asserting the lease lacked a definite end date and was therefore terminable by the landlord’s estate.
- Gerrish contended the instrument gave him the right to remain for life unless he chose to terminate earlier.

## Issues

1. Whether a lease granting only the tenant the right to terminate “at a date of his own choice” creates a determinable life tenancy or merely a tenancy at will terminable by the landlord upon notice.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of New York reversed the lower courts’ rulings for the landlord’s executor.
- The court held the instrument created a determinable life tenancy in favor of the tenant, terminable at the tenant’s election or, at the latest, upon the tenant’s death.
- Because the landlord had no contractual right to terminate at will, the executor could not evict the tenant based solely on notice to quit while the tenant complied with lease conditions.

## Legal Principles

- Courts enforce the parties’ intent as expressed in the lease language; a unilateral tenant power to terminate is not rewritten to include an implied landlord power absent textual support.
- A lease of indefinite duration that ends only when the tenant chooses to terminate, or upon the tenant’s death if he does not, is properly characterized as a life tenancy determinable at the tenant’s will.
- The historical rule treating a tenant-only will-termination provision as creating a tenancy at will for both parties was rejected as inconsistent with modern property and contract principles.

## Conclusion

A lease providing that the term ends when the tenant elects to terminate does not automatically create a landlord-terminable tenancy at will; it creates a determinable life tenancy, preventing eviction based solely on the landlord’s notice while the tenant remains in compliance with the lease.


Garner v. Gerrish, 63 N.Y.2d 575, 473 N.E.2d 223 (1984)