PENQUIN TENANTS CORP. v. ELLENBERG

Upon reading the lease as a whole, and giving full force and effect to every provision and in such manner as to avoid contradiction ( see National Conversion Corp. v. Cedar Bldg. Corp., 23 NY2d 621, 625; Zodiac Enters. v. American Broadcasting Cos., 81 AD2d 337, 339, affd 56 NY2d 738), the court properly found that Ellenberg failed to demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the merger clause overrode paragraph 35 of the lease, which empowered plaintiff to enact new house rules. Because the documentary evidence of the lease was not dispositive on plaintiff's lack of power to enact such rules, the dismissal motion, brought pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1), was properly denied ( see Standard Chartered Bank v. D. Chabbott, Inc., 178 AD2d 112).