Coyote Aviation’s eviction from Redlands airport upheld on appeal

The California 4th District Court of Appeal, Division Two, upheld Redlands’ eviction of hangar rental company Coyote Aviation from their municipal airport in a June 5 published opinion. The ruling does not end the ongoing legal battle between the company and the city. A separate lawsuit from Coyote Aviation challenges Redlands’ attempt to own and operate the hangars built by the company.

“We are disappointed, but not surprised,” Coyote Aviation owner Gil Brown said. “We have the other lawsuit going on, and that’s going great.” 

Inland Empire Law Weekly reached out to Redlands spokesperson Carl Baker for comment but has not heard back by publication time. 

Coyote Aviation entered into a 20-year lease to rent land at the Redlands Municipal Airport on April 4, 2000. The lease would terminate on April 4, 2020, but Coyote Aviation could extend the lease for 15 years if they wrote before the lease ended. 

But because the land was not ready for the business, Coyote Aviation moved in under an amended lease in September 2000. The new lease had the same termination date of April 4, 2020, and Brown asked the city manager to clarify the end date. The official said the city would respect an end date in September 2020 but did not direct the city council to amend the lease.

Brown wrote to the city in September 2020 asking to renew the lease. The city replied that he was a holdover tenant and that he should quit the property. Coyote Aviation filed a complaint alleging breach of contract, specific performance, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, declaratory relief and promissory estoppel. San Bernardino Superior Judge Winston Keh ruled against Coyote Aviation, finding that the former city manager did not have the authority to modify the lease or its stated end date.

The Court of Appeal found that the lease clearly ended in April 2020, despite widespread belief from both the city and Coyote that it would end in September.

“The extrinsic evidence — including the April Lease — clearly showed that the intent of the parties was that the Amended Lease would be for a 20-year term,” the court wrote in its ruling. “Moreover, City officials throughout the term of the Amended Lease stated that the actual termination date of the Amended Lease was September 5, 2020.”

”There are no grounds for the consideration of extrinsic evidence in this case,” the ruling said. “Coyote signed the Amended Lease. The Amended Lease provided for a termination date of April 4, 2020, and all notices must be in writing and sent to the City clerk 45 days prior to the termination of the Amended Lease. It provided that any amendment to the Amended Lease was to be in writing.”

In Coyote Aviation’s active case, the company argues that they should have the right to remove the multi-million dollar hangar complex built by Brown. The lease said that upon termination of the lease, Coyote Aviation would remove all improvements. Brown did not do so because, at first, he wanted to fight the eviction in court. After the company lost the eviction case, the city denied the permits to deconstruct the hangars. The Court of Appeal found that they could not consider that argument in this case.

“There was no resolution of the tenant improvements at the time that the demurrer was sustained and the time of the unlawful detainer,” the court ruled. “Such claims are being resolved in a separate action. The instant case does not warrant leave to amend to resolve these claims in this action.” the court ruled.

The ruling was written by Associate Justice Douglas Miller and joined by Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez and Associate Justice Art McKinster.

Read next: Local attorney Sam Price has guidance for probate attorneys on imminent mandatory eFiling requirements in San Bernardino Superior Court.

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