Opinion ID: 1481896
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Restrictive Covenant

Text: Before determining if the restrictive covenant impacts the operation of Little Angels, we first must consider whether the covenant is valid and applicable to these defendants. We conclude defendants' claim of lack of notice and unclean hands to be without merit. Although defendants may have been without actual notice of the restrictive covenant from their deed, they were certainly on constructive notice of the restrictive covenant for the subdivision that was duly recorded in September 1996 and that specifically affected their property. Any competent title search would have revealed these restrictions on the use of the properties in the subdivision. The defendants' assertions of arbitrary enforcement and unclean hands are likewise of no assistance to them. First, based on the record before us, the so-called business activities of other Paula Lane neighbors, plaintiffs below who are not party to this appeal, appear at best to be merely incidental to the residential use of their homes. Moreover, the appellants are correct that lilt is only when the plaintiff's improper conduct is the source, or part of the source, of his equitable claim, that he is to be barred because of this [bad] conduct. Rodrigues v. Santos, 466 A.2d 306, 311 (R.I.1983) (quoting Dobbs, Handbook on the Law of Remedies 46 (1973)). Hence, because plaintiffs' alleged business activities are not in any way the source of their equitable claim, the doctrine of unclean hands is unavailing for defendants as a bar to plaintiffs' claim.