VAHE KARAJELIAN VS. PARMINDER SINGH TALWAR (L-3131-16, BERGEN COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)

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APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
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SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
DOCKET NO. A-4653-16T1
VAHE KARAJELIAN AND ANTRANIK
KARAJELIAN,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
PARMINDER SINGH TALWAR,
Defendant-Respondent.
__________________________________
Submitted June 18, 2018 – Decided July 5, 2018
Before Judges Fisher and Fasciale.
On appeal from Superior Court of New Jersey,
Law Division, Bergen County, Docket No.
L-3131-16.
Beylerian & Associates, LLP, attorneys for
appellants (Zareh H. Beylerian, on the brief).
Timothy N. Tuttle, attorney for respondent.
PER CURIAM
Plaintiffs appeal from a May 25, 2017 final judgment
determining the fair market rental value of premises leased by
defendant. We affirm.
Plaintiffs own a gasoline station in Hackensack, New Jersey.
In 2005, plaintiffs leased the gasoline pumps to defendant. The
lease agreement was for ten years with a monthly rental payment
of $2500, and an option to renew for an additional ten years. The
lease agreement stated that in the event of defendant's decision
to renew, "[a]ll terms and conditions of this [l]ease agreement
shall remain the same, except that the annual rent shall [be]
adjusted to reflect prevailing market rates in the year of renewal,
and increased each year thereafter by three . . . percent per
year."
Defendant provided plaintiffs with timely and proper notice
of his intention to renew the lease. Plaintiffs notified defendant
that the fair market rental value was $7500 per month, and
defendant disagreed. The parties were unable to resolve their
dispute, resulting in plaintiffs filing their verified complaint.
The judge conducted a bench trial, and both parties provided
expert testimony concerning the fair market rental value of the
gasoline pumps. The experts agreed that the fair market rental
value should be between twenty-five and thirty-five percent of the
gross profit from gasoline sold at the pumps. The judge determined
the monthly profit to be between $17,000 and $18,000 based upon
defendant's testimony. The judge found that based upon the annual
three percent escalation clause that a reasonable fair market
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rental value was twenty-five percent of the gross profits,
equivalent to $4500 per month.
Plaintiffs contend that the judge erred in determining the
reasonable fair market rental value of the gasoline pumps, and
that the fair market rental value is higher than $4500 per month.
Our standard of review requires deference to a judge's
findings "unless they are so wholly unsupportable as to result in
a denial of justice." Greenfield v. Dusseault, 60 N.J. Super.
436, 444 (App. Div.), aff'd o.b., 33 N.J. 78 (1960); see also Rova
Farms Resort, Inc. v. Inv'rs Ins. Co. of Am., 65 N.J. 474, 483-84
(1974). We conclude there exists sufficient credible evidence in
the record to support the judge's findings.
The judge determined the fair market rental value using a
formula proposed by both parties' expert witnesses. The experts
disputed the figures to be used in the formula, and the judge
instead used the figures provided by defendant's "candid[]"
testimony. The judge applied the experts' formula, and determined
that the reasonable fair market rental value to be twenty-five
percent of the gross profits because it was not "commercially-
reasonable to make the rent in year one at the high[-]end or even
mid-end . . . because the rent is going to increase by a little
more than [thirty] percent" due to the escalation clause.
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Plaintiffs failed to evince that the judge erred in his
determination of the fair market rental value. The judge
determined the amount with the formula supplied by both parties'
experts and the figures provided by defendant's testimony, which
the judge determined to be credible.
Affirmed.
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