This consolidated appeal arises from a dispute over the interpretation of a commercial lease (the “Lease”) of a building and land (the “Property”) which gave Appellant and the lessee, Cousins Restaurants, Inc. (“Cousins”), the option to purchase the Property from Appellee and lessor, Philip Werlein, Ltd. (“PWL”), at the end of the thirty-five-year term of the lease for the Property’s fair market value, determined by appraisal as set forth in the Lease. The parties could not agree on whether the appraised value of the Property included the value of the improvements made by Cousins at Cousins’ sole expense during the term of the Lease. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of PWL, holding that the value of the Property includes the value of the improvements made by Cousins.
Cousins appeals the district court’s ruling granting summary judgment in favor of PWL, denying Cousins’ motion for summary judgment in favor of PWL, and denying Cousins’ motion for new trial. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the district court’s judgment granting PWL’s motion for summary judgment; we affirm the district court’s judgment denying Cousins’ motion for summary judgment; and we pretermit review of the district court’s judgment denying Cousins’ motion for new trial as moot. The matter is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.