Saratoga News

Ray Rossi restocks his Saratoga Drug Store

By Sarah Lombardo

Saratoga Drug Store owner Ray Rossi is restocking his store after a Santa Clara County judge ruled last week the store could stay at its Big Basin Way location for at least the next 10 years.

Superior Court Judge Conrad L. Rushing ruled that Rossi's lease for the drugstore, which he has owned for nearly 20 years, was a valid agreement.

Without the ruling, Rossi and the store, which has been in Saratoga since 1904, faced eviction. Rossi said he felt the decision was good not only for him but for all of his almost 400 customers, some of whom rely on the store's home-delivery service for their prescription medicines. "We've been going on very limited inventory," he said.

Rossi said he was was excited about the ruling. "It was excellent news," he said. "I think it's great for the Village and great for this environment. ... You just feel a weight lifted off your shoulders."

But while Rossi placed orders to fill his shelves, the attorney representing Rossi's landlords in the case was already preparing to appeal the decision.

"I think it was a terrible decision," Bernd Schmidt, who represents Alden and Marcelle Bloxham, said. "I feel very sorry for my clients. I'm just sorry it had to go that way."

The decision ends a nearly nine-month dispute between the pharmacist and the Bloxhams, which began when Rossi tried to exercise an option to extend his lease--scheduled to expire in May--another 10 years. In May, the Bloxhams tried to raise Rossi's rent, nearly doubling it from almost $3,000 a month to $6,000 for the 2,200-square-foot storefront. At the center of the issue was a lease agreement handwritten on a piece of cardboard and signed by Alden Bloxham and Rossi in 1992. During the trial, Schmidt claimed that a rent amount was not specified in the original lease for the 10-year period option, and so argued that the lease was unenforceable and invalid. Rossi's attorney, Ron Rossi (no relation), said that the lease's option was for the same terms under which the previous lease agreement had been signed, namely the $2,735-a-month rent and an allowable maximum increase of no more than 2.5 percent a year. In his testimony, Rossi told Rushing that he had originally wanted a 15-year option on the lease and that he and Alden Bloxham finally settled on a 10-year option, adding that he read the option period to include the original lease amount and the 2.5 percent increase clause. Rossi also testified that he and Bloxham had an oral agreement to the same effect. Rushing agreed.

Citing a note on the original lease that read, "Detailed lease to follow," Rushing said that because no detailed lease ever did follow, the handwritten lease, and the alleged oral agreement behind it, stood as valid. "The court finds as a matter of fact that there was a prior oral agreement between the parties and particularly between Alden Bloxham and Adriano [Ray] Rossi that the option to renew would be on the same terms and conditions as the base lease. The primary reason and the basis for the court's finding of fact is that the Bloxhams forgot about the existence of [the original lease] for three years."

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