Appellate decision may not affect Northwood Centre case

At first, it looked like a slam dunk. An appeals court on Thursday said the Department of Corrections isn’t liable for breaking a lease because the rent money wasn’t in the state budget. That sounded like it could take the legal steam from another ongoing dispute between owners of a Tallahassee office complex and several state agencies who bolted on their master lease. Gov. Rick Scott, in the 2016-17 state budget, approved stopping lease payments to Northwood Centre as of July 1, the start of the…