Panera Bread Case Study

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Pages: 2

White City Shopping Center, LP v. PR Restaurants, LLC dba Bread Panera
21 Mass.L.Rptr. 565
Superior Court of Massachusetts,
Worcester County.

Facts:
• The defendant, PR restaurants, LLC operates a chain of Panera Bread Restaurants Panera Bread is a café style restaurant chain that mainly sells sandwiches and soup. PR entered into a ten year lease agreement with plaintiff, White City Shopping Center. PR requested to include an exclusivity clause in the lease, which prohibited White City from renting out any other space in the shopping center to a restaurant or bakery that had annual sales of sandwiches greater than 10% of its total sales. The exclusivity clause however, did not define the term “sandwiches”. Later, White City entered into a lease with Chair 5 for space in the shopping center. Chair 5 planned to open up a Qdoba Restaurant in the shopping center. Qdoba is a Mexican style restaurant chain which sells a variety of burritos, quesadillas, and tacos. PR believed that White City had violated the lease because it believed that those items fall under the term “sandwiches”. White City entered into a lease with Chair 5 and filed and action against PR in order to seek a declaratory judgment that it did not breach its lease with PR. Later, PR moves for a preliminary injunction, seeking to prohibit White City from taking any action that would violate their lease. Such actions include permitting Chair 5 Restaurants from opening a Qdoba restaurant in the shopping center.

Issue: