Cengage Advantage Books: Law for Business 18th Edition by John Ashcroft ,Janet Ashcroft

Exercise 3

Martin McMahon, a practicing attorney, signed a lease of office space from Anderson, Hibey Blair (AH B). The lease required the office to be occupied by McMahon or his clients, Louis Zadi and Ibrahim Metzer. Only the clients used the space and paid rent. Rent was paid for two months, although the space was occupied for five months. When AH B could not recover the unpaid rent from the clients, it sued McMahon. McMahon argued that the lease was illegal because it was executed to evade local zoning laws that limited the tenants to professionals such as him. Zadi and Metzer could not have leased the property themselves, so AH B's administrator had come up with the plan for McMahon to sign the lease. Did McMahon allege adequate facts to show the contract was illegal and unenforceable?