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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

RAINBOW USA, INC, Plaintiff/Counter-DefendantAppellee, v SEVEN GRAND ASSOCIATES, L.L.C., Defendant/Counter-PlaintiffAppellant.

UNPUBLISHED January 5, 2010

No. 288640 Wayne Circuit Court LC No. 07-706968-CZ

Before: Gleicher, P.J., and Fitzgerald and Wilder, JJ. PER CURIAM. Defendant appeals as of right from an order granting summary disposition to plaintiff in this declaratory action, in which the trial court construed the disputed provision of a commercial lease in plaintiff's favor. We affirm. This appeal has been decided without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). Defendant is the landlord of a shopping center in which plaintiff leases space for a retail store. Article II of the lease governed "rent." Section 2.01 provided that "minimum rent" was $84,501 per year. Section 2.02 provided that, in addition to the minimum rent, plaintiff would pay percentage rent of four percent of all gross sales. Section 2.04 provided that plaintiff would pay a proportionate share of taxes and assessments. Section 2.05, entitled "additional payments," provided that rent was defined in the lease "as minimum rent, percentage rent, cost of living, and all other sums of money or charges required to be paid by Tenant under this Lease or in the Exhibits attached hereto. . . ."1 A separate section of the lease, Article VIII, entitled "operation, use and maintenance of common areas," provided that plaintiff was to pay a pro rata share for such expenses, including "the cost of insuring all property provided by Landlord which may at any time comprise the Shopping Center."

Throughout this opinion, the language we quote from the lease reflects additions and deletions made by the parties during negotiations. For example, in

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Michigan Law