Court Opinion

ID: 9676290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:20:34.938263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:38.154066
License: Public Domain

*927ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
BATEMAN, Justice.
In their motion for rehearing appellants contend that there was no evidence, or in the alternative insufficient evidence to show: (1) that any other lot owner in the Addition had had a fence set-back restriction imposed upon him, or (2) that the purported restrictions in question are a part of or referable to a general plan or common scheme of development, or (3) that a general plan or common scheme of development contemplating the fence setback restriction was ever implemented. Appellants contend further that our holding is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. Appellants argue that there is no evidence or finding that fence set-back restrictions are mutual as between these parties, or as among any of the property owners in the Addition. Appellants point out that, insofar as this record shows, theirs is the only property in the Addition to which the said fence restriction applies, and that it would be inequitable to require them to remove their swimming pool and surrounding fence in the absence of any showing that any other property owner in the Addition was subject to the same restriction.
It is undisputed that the original developers, Messrs. Drane and Stephenson, did in fact represent and promise the establishment of a general plan or common scheme for the development of the Addition as “a beautiful, harmonious private residential section.” It is also undisputed that such a general plan or common scheme was thereafter implemented and appellants’ property thereby benefited in that the Addition was developed as a beautiful, harmonious private residential section, and that it remains as such to the present time, some forty-six years after its original adoption. The “implementation” of the plan was shown by proof of many circumstances and actions of the developers and the various property owners in the Addition for many years past; among them the preparation and recording of a plat of the development by Drane and Stephenson, the restriction of certain areas for residences, certain areas for private parks and certain areas for streets, the levy of an assessment against all lot owners for joint maintenance for common areas, the ownership by more than 300 lot owners in the Addition, all succeeding to the title formerly owned by Drane and Stephenson, the formation of an association of these lot owners to attempt to insure compliance with the restrictions in the subdivision, the association’s employment of an architect to insure that proposed construction and improvements will comply with the restrictions, and the litigation by the association of the validity of the restrictions, which were upheld by the courts as recently as 1966, as shown by the opinion of this court in Peterson v. Greenway Parks Home Owners Association, 408 S.W.2d 261 (Tex.Civ.App. — Dallas 1966, writ ref’d n.r.e.).
Having concluded that the plan or scheme was implemented, we must determine whether the fence set-back restriction was included in the implemented plan. There was evidence that a violation of this particular restriction would interfere with the appellee’s enjoyment of the common parkway, which also was part of the general plan or common scheme as implemented. It is our view that this evidence, coupled with all the facts and circumstances in the record, was quite sufficient to support the trial court’s findings concerning the adoption and implementation of a general plan or common scheme of development which included the particular restriction in question. We also hold that such findings were not against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.
Our analysis of the circumstances evidencing implementation of the plan also disposes of the question of mutuality of the set-back restriction, since this particular restriction should properly be viewed in context with the other restrictions which *928also were part of the plan or scheme. The fact that appellee did not have a similar set-back restriction, or that some other residents may not have had one, is not conclusive. All the residents received a mutual benefit from the implementation of the plan or scheme for this beautiful, harmonious private residential section. The fence restriction here involved was a very minor part of the general restrictions as implemented. The set-back restriction was no more important to the overall development than, for example, the joint maintenance fee, the public parks dedication, the minimum frontage requirement, the single family restriction, the requirement for directional facing of homes, the advance approval of building plans, thi specification of building materials, the maximum height restrictions, the minimum living area restriction, the curb line setback restriction, the location of driveway entrances, or the specification of materials for fence construction. Would it be equitable to permit appellants, whose property has been benefited for many years by a general plan or common scheme, to violate this restriction merely because the appellee has not shown that one relatively minor element of the plan or scheme applied to, and was enforced uniformly against, each resident in the Addition? We think not.
Appellants’ motion for rehearing is overruled.