Title: Brownfield Subdivision, Inc. v. McKee
Citation: 334 N.E.2d 131, 61 Ill. 2d 168
Docket Number: 46844
State: Illinois
Issuer: Illinois Supreme Court
Date: May 19, 1975

61 Ill. 2d 168 (1975)
334 N.E.2d 131
BROWNFIELD SUBDIVISION, INC., et al., Appellees,
v.
REX McKEE et al., Appellants.
No. 46844.

Supreme Court of Illinois.
Opinion filed May 19, 1975.
Rehearing denied September 24, 1975.
Bock &amp; Stenger, of Belleville (Ralph T. Stenger, of counsel), for appellants.
*169 Dobbins, Fraker &amp; Tennant, of Champaign (Donald M. Tennant and Richard M. Joy, of counsel), for appellees.
Judgment affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE WARD delivered the opinion of the court:
Acting on the complaint of Brownfield Subdivision, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, and E.J. Buras, the plaintiffs, the circuit court of Champaign County entered an order of injunction prohibiting the defendants, Robert and Mary Ann Collenberger, from occupying what was described as a sectional home in the Brownfield subdivision as a residence. The ground for the order was the court's finding that the structure was a mobile home, a type of structure prohibited in the subdivision by an applicable restrictive covenant. The appellate court affirmed (19 Ill. App.3d 374), and we granted a petition for leave to appeal filed by the defendants.
The restrictive covenant provides in part:
The Collenbergers purchased a structure described as an "Armor Home" and a lot in the Brownfield subdivision from Rex McKee, another defendant, who is the president of Illinois Mobile Homes, Inc. A retail installment contract was used by the parties in the sale of the structure. It described the Armor Home as a mobile home and provided that title should remain vested in the seller until full payment was made. The Collenbergers were given a certificate of title which also referred to the Armor Home as a mobile home and stated its year of manufacture, its style or model and its serial number.
*170 The Armor Home here is 52 feet long, 24 feet wide and has a total living area of 1,460 feet. It is manufactured in two separate sections which, when joined, provide three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, a utility room and 1 1/2 baths. The sections are built upon detachable running gears, i.e., upon undercarriages, springs, axles, wheels and hitches, which are designed to permit their removal at the location where the structure is to be installed.
Prior to installing the Armor Home on their lot, the Collenbergers constructed a concrete foundation 52 feet long, 24 feet wide and 36 inches deep. Stacks of concrete blocks were placed on top of the foundation. Then, three steel I-beams were placed on top of the stacks. When the two sections were delivered at the lot, they were set on jacks which had been placed on the four corners of the foundation. Workmen then removed the detachable running gears from the two sections and lowered the two sections onto the I-beams. The sections were fastened together by angle irons and 16-penny nails.
After the sections were connected, a mason cemented the ends of the beams and the stacks of concrete blocks to the foundation. The mason also built a perimeter wall of building blocks which was cemented to the foundation. However, the bottom of the Armor Home was not cemented, welded or attached in any way to the I-beams or to the perimeter wall. The structure simply rested on the three I-beams. After the sections were joined aluminum enamel siding was installed on the sides of the structure. A family room was added connecting the Armor Home to a previously constructed garage.
Robert Collenberger testified that he knew of the covenant's restrictions when he bought the lot. He said that although the Armor Home after installation could be transported to another location by reattaching the running gear to the bottom of each section, the structure would first have to be dismantled. This would require removing *171 the aluminum siding, removing the bolts from the angle irons and the nails connecting the two sections, removing the shingles from the roof and disconnecting all the utilities.
Rex E. McKee testified that he sold the sectional home to the Collenbergers. He said that there is a difference between a double-wide mobile home and a sectional home. A double-wide home is two mobile homes constructed so that they may be fitted together to make a large mobile home, and it is portable, he said. A sectional home is designed to be a single dwelling with a single roof, and though it is constructed in two sections, it is not portable, he testified. He said that in his opinion the Collenberger's house was a permanent single house and not a mobile home.
He did admit, on cross-examination, that he had advertised the Armor Home as a "double wide mobile home." The advertisement read in part, "the double wide [mobile home] is composed of two mobile sections, either 10 feet or 12 feet wide, connected together at the homesite to form a 20 or 24 foot wide home. These homes are usually over 50 feet long."
Warren Huddleston, the president of Countryside Mobile Homes, Inc., testified that the difference between mobile homes and sectional homes is that a mobile home's running gear is designed to be a permanent part of the unit. He said that a sectional home's running gear is designed to be detached, that is, it is designed to be removed from the housing unit when the unit is placed on a foundation. He stated that the Collenbergers' house in his opinion is a permanent family dwelling and not a mobile home.
The defendants' contention is that their Armor Home is a sectional home and therefore not a mobile home. This contention relies upon the testimony of Rex McKee and Warren Huddleston that sectional homes and mobile homes have important differences. The defendants alternatively *172 argue that even if the structure was a mobile home, it became a permanent structure when it was placed on the foundation. The alternative argument is the one upon which the defendants proceeded in the trial court. In his opening statement their attorney said:
A case with a strong resemblance to the one here is Timmerman v. Gabriel (1970), 155 Mont. 294, 470 P.2d 528. There the issue was whether the structure the defendants had installed on their lot was a trailer, the use of which was prohibited by a restrictive covenant that applied to their property. The covenant was similar to the one here. It provided:
The structure and its installation were similar to the Armor Home and its installation.
It was also observed:
The court concluded the structure was one prohibited by the restrictive covenant:
In Town of Manchester v. Phillips (1962), 343 Mass. 591, 180 N.E.2d 333, a mobile home without wheels was placed by the defendant on a concrete foundation, 51 feet long, 20 feet wide and 4 inches deep. The municipality brought suit to require the removal of the home from land which the defendant also owned on the ground it violated a Manchester zoning bylaw which provided that only single-family dwellings could be used on the property in question. The bylaw specifically declared mobile homes were not to be considered single-family dwellings. The defendant's contention was that the structure was not a "mobile home" within the meaning of the ordinance because it was without wheels and because he was preparing to affix the structure to a concrete foundation.
The court rejected the contention:
There is authority that modular and sectional homes are considered to be in the mobile-home category. B. Hodes and G. Roberson, The Law of Mobile Homes 4 (3d ed. 1974) states:
We consider the structure here must be deemed to be within the prohibitory language of the covenant, "no structure of a temporary character, trailer * * *."
It was advertised as a double-wide mobile home in the *176 installment contract under which it was purchased. Photographs in evidence show it to have the superstructure and appearance of a mobile home. In Hodes and Roberson, The Law of Mobile Homes, which we have cited, it is said that sectional homes are regarded as within the mobile-homes category. There was a concrete foundation here but the structure was in no way attached to it or to the three I-beams on which the structure simply rested. The structure can be transported to another location after the two sections have been separated and the removable undercarriages reattached to the bottoms of the sections. One of the exhibits (an article from a trade journal) attached to the defendants' brief in this court refers to a modular unit's portability as a difference from and an advantage over the conventional home.
The majority of courts considering the question have held that removing the wheels or running gear of a mobile home and placing it on a permanent foundation does not convert the home into a permanent structure. In addition to Timmerman v. Gabriel and Town of Manchester v. Phillips, which we described above, such holdings include: Town of Brewster v. Sherman (1962), 343 Mass. 598, 180 N.E.2d 338; Town of Greenland v. Hussey (1970), 110 N. H. 269, 266 A.2d 122; Bullock v. Kattner (Tex. Civ. App. 1973), 502 S.W.2d 828; Jones v. Beiber (1960), 251 Iowa 969, 103 N.W.2d 364. See also City of Astoria v. Nothwang (1960), 221 Ore. 452, 351 P.2d 688.
There is some contrary authority: Anstine v. Zoning Board of Adjustment (1963), 411 Pa. 33, 190 A.2d 712; Lescault v. Zoning Board of Review (1960), 91 R. I. 277, 162 A.2d 807; In re Willey (1958), 120 Vt. 359, 140 A.2d 11. However, we consider the position taken in the majority of holdings is to be preferred.
For the reasons given, the judgment of the appellate court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.