BERT BIDWELL INVESTMENT CORPORATION, a Colorado corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LASALLE AND SCHIFFER, P.C., and JOHN D. LASALLE AND SPENCER SCHIFFER, Defendants-Appellees, 797 P.2d 811

Summary

The landlord and the tenants entered into a lease agreement. Prior to the expiration of the lease, the tenants vacated the premises and ceased paying rent. The landlord brought suit against the tenants, and the tenants sought summary judgment on the ground that the landlord failed to mitigate damages by rejecting a new tenant proposed by the tenants. The court ruled that the district court's order granting summary judgment on this ground was not clearly erroneous. The landlord had a duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate damages and was not entitled to arbitrarily reject a possible tenant based on the landlord's president's personal dislike of the individual. The court found that the president's personal taste was not a proper consideration in deciding on the suitability of a possible tenant.