Court Opinion

ID: 9643141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:20:37.025665+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:57.778052
License: Public Domain

CHRISTIE, Justice,
with whom MOORE, Justice, joins, dissenting:
I respectfully disagree with the majority.
I think the evidence supports the conclusion of the Chancellor, as finder of fact, that the basic nature of the community of Bethany Beach has not changed in such a way as to invalidate those restrictions which have continued to protect this community through the years as it has grown. Although some of the restrictions have been ignored and a portion of the community is now used for limited commercial purposes, the evidence shows that Bethany Beach remains a quiet, family-oriented resort where no liquor is sold. I think the conditions of the community are still consistent with the enforcement of a restrictive covenant forbidding the sale of intoxicating beverages.
In my opinion, the toleration of the practice of “brown bagging” does not constitute the abandonment of a longstanding restriction against the sale of alcoholic beverages. The restriction against sales has, in fact, remained intact for more than eighty years and any violations thereof have been short-lived. The fact that alcoholic beverages may be purchased right outside the town is not inconsistent with my view that the quiet-town atmosphere in this small area has not broken down, and that it can and should be preserved. Those who choose to buy land subject to the restrictions should be required to continue to abide by the restrictions.
I think the only real beneficiaries of the failure of the courts to enforce the restrictions would be those who plan to benefit commercially.
I also question the propriety of the issuance of a liquor license for the sale of liquor on property which is subject to a specific restrictive covenant against such sales.
I think that restrictive covenants play a vital part in the preservation of neighborhood schemes all over the State, and that a much more complete breakdown of the neighborhood scheme should be required before a court declares that a restriction has become unenforceable.
I would affirm the Chancellor.