Opinion ID: 1988985
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Laches Defense

Text: The defendants have also raised the affirmative defense of lathes in the proceedings below, contending that this doctrine should bar plaintiffs' challenge to the Reserved Area because the plaintiffs sat on their rights while defendants invested heavily in developing the parcel into a function center known as the Newport Regatta Club. The hearing justice rejected defendants' assertions, finding that the claim was precluded by the tolling agreement that was willingly entered into by the parties. The defendants assert that the hearing justice erred in denying their laches defense because it was not waived by the tolling agreement. Laches is an equitable defense that involves not only delay but also a party's detrimental reliance on the status quo. Adam v. Adam, 624 A.2d 1093, 1096 (R.I.1993) (citing Grissom v. Pawtucket Trust Co., 559 A.2d 1065 (R.I.1989)). Mere delay alone is not enough, the delay must be unreasonable. Adam, 624 A.2d at 1096. That is because, Laches, in legal significance, is not mere delay, but delay that works a disadvantage to another. So long as parties are in the same condition, it matters little whether one presses a right promptly or slowly, within limits allowed by law; but when, knowing his rights, he, takes no steps to enforce them until the condition of the other party has, in good faith, become so changed that he cannot be restored to his former state, if the right be then enforced, delay becomes inequitable and operates as an estoppel against the assertion of the right. The disadvantage may come from loss of evidence, change of title, intervention of equities and other causes, but when a court sees negligence on one side and injury therefrom on the other, it is a ground for denial of relief. Id. (quoting Chase v. Chase, 20 R.I. 202, 203-04, 37 A. 804, 805 (1897)). Although defendants correctly assert that they did not waive laches as an affirmative defense when they signed the tolling agreement, they cannot avail themselves of that defense under the circumstances in this case. The record reveals that defendants knowingly and willingly entered into the tolling agreement and thereafter agreed to extend it on three separate occasions. The original tolling agreement provided that any legal action filed by the parties on or before June 30, 1998, with respect to the creation of, amendment to, and operation of the condominium property, would be deemed to have been commenced, filed and served, for purposes of statute of limitations, lathes, waiver, estoppel or similar defenses, on December 1, 1997. The final agreement continued the applicability of the presumed December 1, 1997 filing date to all actions filed on or before May 31, 1999. Despite the fact that the tolling agreement specifically acknowledged and contemplated the possibility that plaintiffs might file the instant civil suit, and while the agreement was still in full force and effect, defendants knowingly invested substantial sums of money in the Reserved Area by constructing the Newport Regatta Club in 1998. Given that fact, defendants cannot now contend that the present action, filed on May 28, 1999, constituted an unreasonable delay upon which they detrimentally relied for purposes of invoking the laches doctrine as an affirmative defense. Consequently, the hearing justice properly rejected defendants' argument on this issue.