Opinion ID: 1528411
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Lot Owners' Rights

Text: [¶ 8] The lot owners base their entitlement to seek relief in this case on two sources. First, the purchasers of lots in a subdivision obtain an easement by implication in the common roads. See Chase v. Eastman, 563 A.2d 1099, 1101 n. 2 (1989). [5] Second, the incorporation of the Declaration into the lot owners' deeds created enforceable contractual rights between the lot owners and GDC. See DeWolf v. Usher Cove Corp., 721 F.Supp. 1518, 1527 (D.R.I.1989) (The general rules governing construction of such Declarations are essentially the same as those applicable to any contract.). That contract bound both parties and expressly required GDC to transfer the Common Spaces to the Homeowners association following the sale of Seventy-Five Percent (75%) of the lots in the subdivision subject to those encumbrances specified [in the Declaration]. [¶ 9] Accordingly, the lot owners may seek to enjoin GDC's use of the roads to the extent that: (1) the proposed use unreasonably interferes with their own easement (whether created by the contract or by common law); or (2) the proposed use conflicts with the Declaration. The lot owners did not assert that the use intended by GDC would unreasonably interfere with their own use of the roads. [6] Rather, they argued that GDC promised to deed the roads to the Association unencumbered by any remaining interest in GDC. [¶ 10] GDC argues that, notwithstanding its agreement to transfer the Common Spaces to the Association, it retained the right as fee owner of the roads to transfer the roads under whatever terms and conditions it chose. [7] The Declaration, however, bound GDC to undertake the transactions promised therein. Although GDC remained the fee owner, that ownership became encumbered by the terms and conditions of the Declaration upon sale of the lots. The Declaration, incorporated in the deeds and constituting part of the lot owners' bargain with GDC, is subject to the rules of interpretation of any contract. [8] Upon incorporation into the purchasers' deeds, the Declaration's terms became binding upon the grantor-developer as well as the purchasers and their heirs and assigns. GDC did not remain free to dispose of the Common Spaces except as consistent with the Declaration. We therefore turn to the language of the Declaration.