Afflerbach v. McManus

36 Pa. D. & C.2d 495, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 61
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County
DecidedApril 24, 1964
Docketno. 7
StatusPublished

This text of 36 Pa. D. & C.2d 495 (Afflerbach v. McManus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Afflerbach v. McManus, 36 Pa. D. & C.2d 495, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 61 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1964).

Opinion

Satterthwaite, P. J.

(7th Judicial District, Specially Presiding),

By this action in equity, neighboring residents and property owners in Fairless Hills, Falls Township, seek injunctive relief against defendants, who have erected and maintained certain exterior radio and television antennas on their house and lot in alleged violation of building and use restrictions imposed upon all residential properties in the development. The material facts alleged in plaintiff’s complaint are substantially all admitted by defendants’ answer which, however, denies the validity and enforceability of the restrictions on the ground that they are ambiguous and contrary to public policy; defendants therein also challenge plaintiffs’ status as aggrieved parties or as parties entitled to prosecute the action. By way of new matter, which plaintiffs’ reply placed in issue, defendants further answered that husband-defendant was an amateur radio operator licensed by the Federal Communications Commission and, as such, made essential use of the radio transmitting and receiving equipment located in his home for civil defense and other public service and humanitarian purposes; that he would be unable to operate [497]*497these facilities without the subject radio antennas; that changes in television technology now under way will soon render obsolete present television receiving sets using indoor aerials and will necessitate the use of outdoor antennas for that purpose, resulting in hardship on the Fairless Hills community generally if outside antennas be effectively prohibited. Defendants’ new matter further asserted the affirmative defense that plaintiffs, and many if not all other residents of Fairless Hills, had theretofore maintained television or radio antennas on their premises, and that there were further unprosecuted violations of other aspects of the restrictive covenants.

From the admissions in the pleadings, the evidence adduced at the hearing and the subsequent requests for findings submitted by the parties, the chancellor makes the following

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiffs are the respective owners and residents of 14 houses and lots located on the plan of Fairless Hills, unit B, sec. II, Falls Township, Bucks County, Pa., as laid out and developed by Danherst Corporation and duly recorded; plaintiffs’ properties are all located within one block of the subject property of defendants.

2. Defendants, husband and wife, are the owners and occupants of a house and lot known as 428 Chelsea Road, being lot 24 unit B, sec. II, of the said Fairless Hills plan, having acquired title thereto from Danherst Corporation by deed dated November 11, 1952.

3. The plan known as unit B, sec. II, of Fairless Hills, plots approximately 214 residential lots, including the respective premises of plaintiffs and defendants, all of which were and are subject to a so-called declaration of covenants, restrictions, reservations, exceptions, limitations, rights and easements, which had been executed by Danherst Corporation as the [498]*498original developer thereof and recorded on July 7, 1952, in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds of Bucks County.

4. Said declaration, by various subparagraphs, created and imposed restrictions, stated therein to be covenants running with the land until January 1, 1977, with provision for further renewal, by the terms of which the subject lots were limited to single-family residential purposes, with houses required to be of approved plan, location, size and setbacks from street and lot lines. In addition to prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, as well as the keeping of poultry or animals, other than house pets, the declaration also provided:

“D. No fence, wall, hedge or mass planting shall be permitted within 25 feet of the front lot line . . .
“I. No flagpole or radio or television aerial shall be erected, placed or permitted to remain on any lot or on any structure erected thereon . . .
“K. If the parties hereto, or any of them, or their heirs or assigns, shall violate or attempt to violate any of the Covenants herein, it shall be lawful for any other person or persons owning any single-family residential lot in Plan of Fairless Hills, Unit B, Section II, as aforesaid, to prosecute any proceedings at law or in equity against the person or persons violating or attempting to violate any such covenant, and either to prevent him or them from so doing or to recover damages or other dues for such violation.”

5. Each of the various conveyances of lots on said unit B, sec. II, from Danherst Corporation, including the deeds to the respective plaintiffs and to the defendants, contained an express subjection clause incorporating said declaration therein by reference.

6. Similar restrictions were imposed by Danherst Corporation upon residential lots laid out on other units and sections of the whole Fairless Hills housing [499]*499development, which consisted of approximately 2,200 homes.

7. In 1957, husband-defendant became licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as a general class amateur radio operator at the subject premises. Wife-defendant and two of their minor children residing in the subject property are also similarly licensed as amateur radio operators.

8. For any reasonably practical use thereof, the operation of an amateur radio station requires an elevated, exterior antenna of one or more of several possible designs or types.

9. Defendants’ use of their amateur radio equipment, including the essential outdoor-elevated antennas in question, although a hobby to them, does serve substantial utilitarian purposes and performs humanitarian and public service functions, especially in times of emergency, both locally within Falls Township and Bucks County in certain police, civil defense and other matters of public concern, as well as for informal long distance communications, through so-called “phone-patches” with the related use of local telephone facilities, between individuals in far reaches of the world, such as servicemen overseas, and their families at home.

10. Beginning in 1957, and continuing thereafter until the present, defendants have erected and maintained on or in the immediate vicinity of the dwelling house on their lot, one or more exterior radio antennas for use under their amateur radio licenses.

11. Each of the houses in Fairless Hills as built by Danherst Corporation, including those of plaintiffs and defendants respectively, was constructed with an interior, built-in television antenna within the attic thereof.

12. The interior television antenna furnished with defendants’ home when first constructed in 1952 pro[500]*500vided adequate reception of conventional VHF television signals from Philadelphia transmitters, but was not effective to receive such signals from New York City stations, which could, however, be received in Fairless Hills with an exterior, above-roof, rotatable antenna.

13.

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Bluebook (online)
36 Pa. D. & C.2d 495, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/afflerbach-v-mcmanus-pactcomplbucks-1964.