Opinion ID: 1264387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A mandatory injunction should be entered for the removal of the tennis court.

Text: Application of the relative hardship test reveals that removal of the tennis court would create a significantly greater benefit to Pelosi than harm to the individual defendants. First, a balancing of the states of mind of the relevant parties weighs in favor of Pelosi. Pelosi objected to the tennis court well before its completion. Pelosi took action, therefore, to prevent the violation of the MM III covenant. The individual defendants, on the other hand, had notice of the MM III covenant in their deeds, and many of them purchased Wailea Ranch parcels before the tennis court was completed. The individual defendants chose not, however, to take any action to investigate the proposed uses of Lot 29 and possible violations by the WRE defendants. Furthermore, Pelosi currently has a tennis court just outside of his bedroom window. He is subjected to the noise of tennis games from morning to evening, seven days a week. As with the roadway, the tennis court violates the MM III covenants and thereby changes the desired tone of the community. Permitting the tennis court to remain would forever change the character of the MM III subdivision. The individual defendants suggest that removal of the tennis courts would impose both expense and loss of property value upon them. The individual defendants have adduced no evidence, however, of such expense or loss of property value in the event that the tennis court is removed. Accordingly, this court cannot simply assume that removal of the tennis court will cause the defendants to incur harm of any significant magnitude. Pelosi adduced substantial evidence that the tennis court has caused him harm. The individual defendants, by contrast, have not pointed to any evidence that the removal of the tennis court would represent a hardship to them. Accordingly, the ICA did not err in holding that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying Pelosi's prayer for a mandatory injunction requiring the removal of the tennis court.