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Keywords

easementpartnership

appealeasementpartnershipsustained

Related Cases

Forster v. Hall, 265 Va. 293, 576 S.E.2d 746

Facts

Goose Creek Partnership developed Goose Creek Estates, a residential subdivision, and included a restrictive covenant against mobile homes in most deeds. Over time, some lot owners, including the Halls and McKinneys, placed double-wide manufactured homes on their lots, which were permanently affixed to the land. Forster, a neighboring lot owner, filed a complaint seeking to enforce the easement against these homes, arguing they violated the covenant against mobile homes.

Over approximately the next sixteen years, the partnership included in the vast majority of the deeds to lots in Goose Creek Estates sold to the original purchasers a restrictive covenant providing that 'no mobile homes, either single or double-wide, may be parked and/or erected on the property.'

Issue

Whether the chancellor correctly determined that an implied reciprocal negative easement prohibits the placement of 'mobile homes' on all the lots of a residential subdivision and whether certain structures permanently annexed to the land are in violation of that restriction.

In this appeal, we consider whether the chancellor correctly determined that an implied reciprocal negative easement prohibits the placement of 'mobile homes' on all the lots of a residential subdivision.

Rule

An implied reciprocal negative easement arises when a common grantor develops land for sale in lots and imposes uniform restrictions, allowing grantees to enforce similar restrictions against other lots.

An implied reciprocal negative easement arises 'when a common grantor develops land for sale in lots and pursues a course of conduct which indicates an intention to follow a general scheme of development for the benefit of himself and his purchasers.'

Analysis

The court found that the partnership's actions in conveying the majority of lots with a uniform restriction against mobile homes established an implied reciprocal negative easement. Although some lot owners had requested exemptions from the restriction, they were still on notice of the easement's existence. The court determined that the structures placed on the landowners' lots were mobile homes at the time of placement and remained so, regardless of their current condition.

The chancellor's finding in this regard is not one of fact but of law. The chancellor's finding is not binding on this Court because we are provided with the same opportunity as the chancellor to consider the language of the restriction in question.

Conclusion

The Supreme Court affirmed the existence of the implied reciprocal negative easement prohibiting mobile homes in Goose Creek Estates, reversed the lower court's finding that the structures were not in violation, and remanded the case for enforcement of the easement.

Accordingly, we hold that the structures on the lots at issue here are 'mobile homes' within the meaning of the implied reciprocal negative easement, and the chancellor erred in finding that Forster has not sustained his burden of proving the right to enforce that easement.

Who won?

Forster prevailed in the case as the Supreme Court ruled that the structures placed by the landowners were indeed mobile homes and violated the easement, thus allowing him to enforce the restriction.

Forster sought a determination 'that Lots 1, 2, and 3 of Section 4, Goose Creek Estates subdivision, each are subject to [an implied reciprocal negative] easement that no mobile home, either single or double-wide, shall be placed on said land at any time.'

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