Opinion ID: 2004205
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Manufactured Homes

Text: This court must decide whether a prohibition against placement of a manufactured home is apparent in the language of the asserted covenant. The covenant prohibits trailers. As Ronald testified, the term house trailer ceased to be used in the industry, and gave way to mobile home, which in turn later gave way to manufactured home. In Wilmoth v. Wilcox, 734 S.W.2d 656, 658 (Tex.Ct.App.1987), a case holding that a prohibition against house trailers also prohibited manufactured homes, the court stated that the record in that case showed that the term house trailer acquired undesirable connotation, and that in the late 1960s the industry began to use the term mobile home instead, and that later in the 1970s when mobile home likewise began to take on an undesirable connotation, the industry began using the term manufactured homes. Wilmoth, 734 S.W.2d at 658. The term manufactured home was not in use in the industry in 1967 when the subject Bill of Assurance and Protective Covenants were drafted and filed. Further in Wilmoth, supra , the court stated that [t]he words used in the restrictive covenant must be given the meaning which they commonly held as of the date the covenant was written, and not as of some subsequent date. Wilmoth, 734 S.W.2d at 658. The task is to determine the intent of the framers of the restrictive covenants. Id. Looking to a dictionary of the period, we find that a trailer is, among other things, a vehicle designed to serve as a dwelling or business. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2424 (1968). In the present case, the manufactured home was transported on wheels to the site in two parts. A vehicle at the time the covenants were drafted was defined as, among other things, a conveyance. Id. at 2538. There is no question that the manufactured home was built with wheels as a conveyance and hauled to the site rather than being built there. Once conveyed to the site, the wheels, axles, springs, tongue, and hitch were removed, and substantial modifications were made such as the addition of a porch, a carport, and brick skirting. In Welchman v. Norman, 311 Ark. 52, 841 S.W.2d 614 (1992), this court considered whether a manufactured home was a prohibited mobile home, holding that it was, and rejected an argument that removal of the wheels and placement of a rock skirting altered its status. We agree that the removal of the wheels, tongue, and other vehicle equipment in this case did not alter the status of the manufactured home. Nor did the addition of the carport or other structures alter the manufactured home's status. Any structure added is simply part of the mobile or manufactured home. Gem Estates Mobile Home Village Ass'n Inc. v. Bluhm, 885 So.2d 435 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.2004). The manufactured home in this case was built off-site and transported to Joy J. Acres in two pieces by truck. It sits upon stacked concrete blocks characterized as piers. There is no mortar between the blocks. The home is anchored to concrete poured in the soil beneath the home, but it has no perimeter footing as in an on-site built home. The home does not sit on footings. Steel beams run the length of the home and serve as a chassis for over-the-road transport. While the beams serve as support for the floor, if that had been their only purpose, the beams would not have been placed so as to form a chassis to make the home into a vehicle. The circuit court concluded that the term `trailer, trailer house, mobile home, manufactured home' apply to what we knew in the 60s as trailers and what is now being called mobile homes and manufactured homes. Other courts have held that a manufactured home is a prohibited trailer or mobile home. [1] The covenant uses the term trailer, and on that basis alone this case might be affirmed; however, what is apparent in the language of the Bill of Assurances and Protective Covenants is that the framers intended to assure buyers and residents that any homes built would be similar in construction and quality to their homes. A manufactured home does not fit this requirement and is prohibited by the use of the plain and unambiguous term trailer. We affirm the circuit court's judgment that the manufactured home violates the covenants.