Taylor couple loses appeal — over a fence | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com
The couple acknowledge they didn't follow the rule but say the association has ignored others who put up fences. The appeals court says strict language in the deed trumps any lax enforcement.
The couple say they surveyed their neighbors and found a majority would favor the fence. The court says public opinion in this case doesn't matter.
2 comments:
I love it when the court takes a strict interpretation of a contract to make its point, like in this case, “A deed restriction represents a contract between the buyer and seller of property.” But, how does that apply to a third party HOA who is neither the buyer nor seller, strictly speaking?
And then there’s the, “And it is “[a] fundamental tenet of our jurisprudence . . . that unambiguous contracts are not open to judicial construction and must be enforced as written.” Like, the only applicable law is contract law and the “contractual” CC&Rs, which would fail any test under Contract Law 101. You know, the contract rules all laws of the land, regardless. People can contract to subvert the law, is what I see being allowed here with such a strict interpretation approach to law and order.
Excuse me your honor, what say you about your own statement that, in regard to exceptions, "or when “the
restriction contravenes law or public policy.?” Desn't it apply here as good public policy???
"Waiver and estoppel? Don't matter. Neighbors don't care? Doesn't matter. Words? They are all that matter."
As the professor said 10 years ago on ABC's 20/20 :
"What's really driving this is the dynamics of these collection lawyers who are just out to generate fees"
According to the CAI, the opportunity to generate fees for HOA lawyers does more to create a sense of community than the wishes of the neighbors or any degree of common sense.
And you can be sure that the HOA's lawyers encouraged the litigation, because (for a fee) they wrote the HOA's policy that says the lawyers get paid first, and get paid regardless of the outcome.
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