Lease Attorney Fees Partial Performance Valid: In a recent decision of May 20, 2013, The Ohio Court of Appeals in the Ninth Judicial District finds that partial performance of a lease that did not comply with the Statute of Conveyance is valid and that it is error to fail to enforce the provision awarding attorney fees to the prevailing party. Hadcock Properties, Inc. v. Mesar, 2013-Ohio-2033. The Statute of Conveyance requires any lease of a term of three years or more to be properly acknowledged and notarized. The lease in the Hadcock Case was not. The trial court upheld the lease because it found that there was partial performance since the landlord had altered the structure of the leased premises for the tenant, and applied for a zoning variance. However, the trial court awarded damages to the landlord for breach of the lease, but did not award attorney fees pursuant to terms of the lease because it claimed to do so would be inequitable since the landlord’s lease had not complied with the Statute of Conveyance. The appellate court agreed with the decision regarding the partial performance, but held that the trial court erred in not awarding attorney fees to the landlord. The appellate court reasoned that by removing the lease from the Statute of Conveyances, the trial court brought the parties under the terms of the lease including the provision of the lease that provided for the award of attorney fees to the prevailing party.