A landowner can’t claim that it owns a billboard if creates barriers which prevent you from removing a billboard in a timely manner. That’s the lesson of Kwik Stop v Lamar. Here are the facts.
- Lamar owned a 30 by 36 static billboard on Kwik Stop property in Indiana. When the lease ended in July 2018 Lamar and Kwik Stop agreed that Lamar would remove the billboard by July 31, 2018.
- Lamar was unable to remove the billboard by July 31, 2018 due to severe weather. Kwik Stop would not allow Lamar on the property thereafter to remove the billboard.
- In July 2020 and August 2020 a trial court ruled that the billboard belonged to Lamar and that Kwik Stop should “disconnect the electrical power” and “cooperate with Lamar” in the removal of the billboard.
- Kwik Stop insisted that attorneys fees and rental fees needed to be paid prior to the billboard’s removal despite the fact that the court findings required neither.
- In December 2020 a trial court found found that Kwik Stop failed to cooperate with Lamar and ordered Kwik Stop to coordinate with Lamar on removal of the billboard. Kwik Stop appealed.
- In Feb 2022 an Indiana court of Appeals ruled in favor of Lamar. The Court found: “Kwik Stop would not cooperate in the billboard’s removal until Lamar paid Kwik Stop’s attorney’s fees. Such a requirement was not part of the trial court’s order. When talks regarding payments broke down, Kwik Stop indicated that the time for removing the Billboard had passed. But Kwik Stop had created barriers to Lamar’s ability to comply with the trial Court’s order to remove the Billboard within the specified timeframe by failing to respond to Lamar’s emails in August 2020, filing multiple motions to correct error, and unnecessarily requiring payment of fees prior to cooperating in the Billboard’s removal. As a result, the trial court found Kwik Stop failed to cooperate with Lamar and ordered Kwik Stop to comply with the Billboard’s removal. We cannot say that such a determination by the trial court is an abuse of discretion.”
Billboard Insider’s take: You might want to add a weather clause to the billboard construction and billboard removal clauses in your leases. Extreme weather can make it hard to meet a removal or construction deadline.
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