Landlord can enforce lease requiring payment in gold coins

The owner of a Cleveland office building can enforce a 1912 lease that requires a tenant to pay rent in gold coins, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The lease – which has been renewed and assumed many times over the last 96 years – provides for rent of $35,000 a year “in gold coin of the United States.”

The current tenant has been paying $35,000 a year in cash. But the court said the tenant actually owes the equivalent of 35,000 1912 gold dollars. That’s about 1,700 ounces of gold, or roughly $1.5 million at today’s prices.

David Thompson, an attorney for the landlord, said his client was “delighted” with the 4,280% rent increase.

Source: Associated Press.