Case Name: C.W. HYDE, Trustee of the Pauline Klabo Trust, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jonathan W.A. LIEBELT and Charlotte A. Liebelt, Defendants and Appellants
Court: South Dakota Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: South Dakota
Decision Date: 1986-10-22
Citations: 394 N.W.2d 888
Docket Number: No. 15125
Parties: C.W. HYDE, Trustee of the Pauline Klabo Trust, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jonathan W.A. LIEBELT and Charlotte A. Liebelt, Defendants and Appellants.
Judges: MORGAN and FOSHEIM, JJ., concur.
Reporter: North Western Reporter 2d
Volume: 394
Pages: 888–893

Head Matter:
C.W. HYDE, Trustee of the Pauline Klabo Trust, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jonathan W.A. LIEBELT and Charlotte A. Liebelt, Defendants and Appellants.
No. 15125.
Supreme Court of South Dakota.
Argued Sept. 16, 1986.
Decided on Rehearing Oct. 22, 1986.
Kent Hyde of Hyde Law Office, Aberdeen, for plaintiff and appellee.
Carlyle E. Richards, P.C., Aberdeen, for defendants and appellants.

Opinion:
HENDERSON, Justice. •
ACTION
This case, involving summary judgment, constitutes a rehearing on the opinion rendered in Hyde v. Liebelt, 391 N.W.2d 186 (S.D.1986). After the submission of written and oral arguments, we reverse the prior opinion and affirm the trial court's original grant of Summary Judgment.
FACTS
Via Contract for Deed, Pauline Klabo (Klabo) purchased real estate situated in Brown County, South Dakota, from Jonathan and Charlotte Liebelt (Liebelts). Paragraph 9 of said Contract for Deed states:
Buyer, for herself, her successors in interest and assigns, agrees that no part of the above described premises shall ever be used for any of the following purposes:
(a) An area for the display or sales of mobile homes or trailer homes of any kind; or
(b) An area for the display, sales or servicing of any sort of recreational vehicles, whether of the two, three or four-wheel kind; or
(c) For the construction of a motel or motor inn.
The parties agree that these restrictions shall constitute covenants running with the land and that any conveyance signed by Sellers shall be subject to the within covenants.
Since the execution of this contract, Kla-bo died and by will left her equitable interest in the real estate in trust. C.W. Hyde (Hyde) is the trustee of this trust and the plaintiff-appellee herein.
Hyde and the owner of a motel on adjacent property executed a purchase agreement for the sale of the real estate. The motel owner, however, backed out of the purchase agreement when the above-quoted restriction was discovered.
In April 1985, Hyde filed a Complaint which sought a declaratory ruling as to whether the restrictive covenant ran with the land or was personal in nature, and, in the alternative, also sought a declaration of the uses the property could be put to without violating the covenant. The Liebelts, defendants-appellants herein, answered Hyde's Complaint, denying the allegations therein and raising the affirmative defenses of estoppel, laches, and waiver. The Liebelts further alleged that Hyde's action was premature as he had not paid the balance owed under the Contract for Deed, and that his Complaint failed to allege any cause of action for which relief could be granted.
After Hyde filed a Certificate of Readiness for Trial, the Liebelts moved for summary judgment. In support of their motion, the Liebelts referred to the Complaint and Answer filed herein. No other sup-' porting documents, i.e., admissions, affidavits, answers to interrogatories, or depositions, were filed. Hyde resisted the Lie-belts' motion by filing an affidavit in resistance thereto. Thereafter, Hyde also moved for summary judgment and supported his motion with an affidavit.
The trial court, apparently after a hearing (the transcript of which is not contained in the settled record), granted summary judgment in favor of Hyde. In so doing, the trial court determined that the covenant in question was personal and did not run with the land because it benefitted the Liebelts' business. The trial court also determined the covenant was not enforceable as an equitable servitude.
The Liebelts appealed the Summary Judgment to this Court, raising the propriety of the latter determination only. In our previous opinion, the trial court's equitable servitude determination was reversed. After the rendition of that opinion, Hyde petitioned this Court for a rehearing which was duly granted.
DECISION
After reviewing our prior writings, the settled record, the Petition for Rehearing and the Liebelts' response thereto, and after presentation of oral arguments, we reverse the prior opinion of this Court and affirm the Summary Judgment on appeal.
Summary judgment is properly granted when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. McElvain, 363 N.W.2d 186, 188 (S.D.1985). The question presented to the trial court below was a question of law. In summary judgment proceedings, the trial court's rulings are presumed to be correct, and the party alleging error has the burden to show it affirmatively by the record. Crook v. Pap, 303 N.W.2d 818, 819 (S.D.1981). We conclude, for two reasons, that the trial court properly granted summary judgment.
First, equitable enforcement of a restrictive covenant is properly granted when the restriction benefits the property of the person seeking enforcement and the person against whom enforcement is sought had notice of the restriction. 20 Am.Jur.2d Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions § 293, at 857 (1965). See also, Chappell v. Winslow, 144 F.2d 160, 161 (4th Cir.1944); McSweyn v. Inter-Urban R. Co., 256 Iowa 1140, 1146, 130 N.W.2d 445, 448 (1964); Lovell v. Columbian Nat'l Life Ins. Co., 294 Mass. 473, —, 2 N.E.2d 545, 547 (1936); Toothaker v. Pleasant, 315 Mo. 1239, 1245, 288 S.W. 38, 43 (1926); Coughlin v. Barker, 46 Mo.App. 54, 62-63 (1891); Traficante v. Pope, 115 N.H. 356, 360, 341 A.2d 782, 785 (1975); and 3 H. Tiffany, The Law of Real Property § 865, at 495 (3rd ed. 1939).
Here, the Liebelts moved for summary judgment, and although not raised in their pleading or asserted in their motion, the Liebelts apparently argued, alternatively, the enforcement of the covenant as an equitable servitude. The Liebelts, however, failed to file admissions, affidavits, depositions, etc., in support of their motion and to meet their burden of proof that the restrictive covenant was appurtenant to and benefitted their land. Under Lovell, 2 N.E.2d at 547, Liebelts failed to carry their burden of proof. In resolving whether the covenant ran with the land for enforcement purposes, the trial court determined the covenant did not benefit the Liebelts' property but instead benefitted their recreational vehicle and mobile home business and was thus personal in nature. Having failed to establish that the covenant bene-fitted their property as opposed to conferring a personal benefit, by failing to present supporting documentation at a time when the law requires such, summary judgment could be entered against the Lie-belts because they failed to establish the first element of equitable servitudes. Lie-belts failed to meet their burden. Crook, 303 N.W.2d at 819.
Second, this case was brought before the trial court for a declaratory ruling under SDCL ch. 21-24 by Hyde. Per SDCL 21-24-3 and SDCL 21-24-4, the construction and validity of a contract can be determined, and the rights, status, and legal relations declared. But the Liebelts' case herein centers on the proposition that a court of equity will place an equitable servitude against property which would restrict its use by a subsequent grantee with notice. The settled record, however, does not reveal the existence of a subsequent grantee with or without notice, and we will not permit trial courts to wax into law on theoretical questions. See Kneip v. Herseth, 87 S.D. 642, 648, 214 N.W.2d 93, 96 (1974); State of North Dakota v. Perkins County, 69 S.D. 270, 274, 9 N.W.2d 500, 501 (1943); and Security State Bank v. Breen, 65 S.D. 640, 644, 277 N.W. 497, 499 (1938). Concerning the equitable servitude issue, the trial court resolved that the covenant did not benefit the Liebelts' property; rather, it was personal in nature. Under the pleading and showing below, we affirm the Summary Judgment.
The opinion rendered in Hyde v. Liebelt, 391 N.W.2d 186, is accordingly reversed.
MORGAN and FOSHEIM, JJ., concur.
SABERS, J., concurs in result.
WUEST, C.J., dissents.
. For a covenant to run with the land, as pertinent to this case, the covenant must have been made for the direct benefit of existing property. SDCL 43-12-2(1). See also SDCL 43-12-1.
. The settled record contains a letter from the Liebelts' attorney to the trial court, which mentions the equitable servitude arguments raised in the briefs presented to the court.
. As previously noted, the Liebelts have not appealed the determination that the covenant did not run with the land. Thus, it is not an issue in this appeal. Furthermore, Liebelts made this concession during oral argument.