Camino Gardens Ass'n, Inc. v. McKim

612 So. 2d 636, 1993 WL 5857
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 13, 1993
Docket91-3502
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 612 So. 2d 636 (Camino Gardens Ass'n, Inc. v. McKim) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Camino Gardens Ass'n, Inc. v. McKim, 612 So. 2d 636, 1993 WL 5857 (Fla. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

612 So.2d 636 (1993)

CAMINO GARDENS ASSOCIATION, INC., a Florida nonprofit corporation, Appellant,
v.
Richard McKIM, Jane McKim, Eric McKim, Home Savings of America, F.S.B., a Federal Savings Bank, f/k/a/ Home Savings of America, F.A., a Federal Association, Great Western Bank, a Federal Savings Bank, a United States Corporation, Kevin B. Gentry and Natalie V. Gentry, Appellees.

No. 91-3502.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

January 13, 1993.

*637 Glen A. Stankee and Robin L. Hyman of Raymond & Dillon, P.C., Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

James V. Lau of Lau, Lane, Pieper & Asti, P.A., Tampa, and Joel H. Feldman of Feldman, Mallinger & Brown, P.A., Boca Raton, for appellees Richard McKim, Jane McKim, Eric McKim, and Great Western Bank.

Byron B. Mathews, Jr., and Michael J. Weber of McDermott, Will & Emery, Miami, for appellees Home Savings of America, Kevin B. Gentry, and Natalie V. Gentry.

POLEN, Judge.

Appellant homeowner's association, Camino Gardens Association, Inc. (hereinafter the Association) brings this appeal from a final judgment entered in favor of appellees Home Savings; Eric, Jane and Richard McKim; Great Western Bank; and Kevin and Natalie Gentry. We affirm the final judgment entered after the trial court granted appellees' motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The Association, whose membership consists exclusively of all association-approved *638 owners of lots within the Camino Gardens subdivision in Boca Raton, filed suit against appellees alleging that all lots in the subdivision were subject to a declaration of restrictions which included a prohibition on the sale, lease, use or occupancy of any lot in the subdivision to anyone other than a duly admitted member of the Association.[1] It was alleged that Article X of the declaration had been violated when Home Savings, which financed the Gentry's property in Camino Gardens, took title to the property in lieu of foreclosure without notifying the Association. Home Savings then closed on the purchase of the property to the McKims, despite the fact that the McKims' application for admission to membership in the Association had not yet been acted upon by the Association. The McKims' application for membership was ultimately denied when the Association's investigation revealed that the McKims were not of "good moral character" or of "sufficient financial responsibility," to obtain membership.

The Association's complaint sought a declaration that the deed from the Gentrys to Home Savings was void and that the deed from Home Savings to the McKims was void. Great Western Bank was joined in the action after the McKims secured a mortgage from that bank. The Association's complaint also sought a writ of ejectment ordering the McKims to vacate the property, and an injunction permanently enjoining the Gentrys and Home Savings from attempting to convey the property to *639 anyone other than a member in good standing of the Association.

The appellees filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, directed toward the three (3) pertinent provisions of Article X. First, the motion alleged that the provision prohibiting conveyance of the property to persons other than members in good standing of the Association was void as an unreasonable restraint on alienation and/or repugnant to conveyance of the fee estate in the property. Appellees alleged that the provision granting the Association and all of its members the right to purchase property by satisfying the outstanding mortgage balance in the event that the mortgagee of that property initiates foreclosure proceedings was void because it constituted an unreasonable restraint on alienation, violated the rule against perpetuities, and/or stifled or chilled bidding. Lastly, appellees asserted that the provision in Article X requiring that a mortgagee give written notice to the Association thirty (30) days prior to instituting foreclosure proceedings did not require the mortgagee to give such notice prior to accepting a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

The trial court granted appellees' motion and entered judgment on the pleadings. The court found, as a matter of law, that Article X's prohibition against conveyance of lots in Camino Gardens to persons other than Association members was void because it constituted an unreasonable restraint on alienation. The court also found that the provision giving the Association a right to redeem any mortgage in the event that the mortgagee initiated foreclosure proceedings and the provision requiring the mortgagee to give written notice to the Association thirty (30) days prior to initiating such proceedings were void because they were inextricably related to the provision purporting to prohibit conveyance to all but Association members, they constituted an unreasonable restraint on alienation, and they stifled or chilled bidding. Lastly, the court determined that the provision purporting to give the Association a right to redeem any mortgage in the event that the mortgagee initiated foreclosure proceedings did not require that the mortgagee give any notice to the Association before accepting a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The subject provisions of Article X were declared null and void. The deeds from the Gentrys to Home Savings and from Home Savings to the McKims were declared valid conveyances, and the mortgage from the McKims to Great Western Bank was declared a valid mortgage.

The Association has failed to demonstrate error in the procedure employed by the trial court in entering a judgment on the pleadings in this declaratory judgment action. "In a declaratory judgment action, a trial court may enter a judgment on the pleadings if the merits of the case can be determined as a matter of law from the pleadings." State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Chapman, 415 So.2d 47, 79 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), petition for review denied, 426 So.2d 29 (Fla. 1983). An evidentiary hearing need not be held in every case prior to the grant of a motion for judgment on the pleadings. In ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings, "all well-pleaded allegations of the party opposing the motion are to be taken as true, and all allegations of the moving party which are denied are taken as false." J & J Utility Co. v. Windmill Village by the Sea Condominium No. I Ass'n, 485 So.2d 36, 36 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). In the instant case the trial court properly reviewed the pleadings, accepting each of the factual allegations set forth in the Association's complaint as true and resolving any issues of fact in favor of the Association, as it was required to do. Concluding that the merits of the instant case could be determined as a matter of law from the pleadings, the court was entitled to enter judgment on the pleadings.

The Association has also failed to demonstrate error in the trial court's determination that two provisions of Article X were void and the third was ineffectual. When determining the validity of restraints on alienation, courts must measure such restraints in terms of their duration, type of alienation precluded, or the size of the class precluded from taking. Metropolitan Dade County v. Sunlink Corp., 17 *640 Fla. L. Weekly 352, 353, 1992 WL 12109 (Fla. 3d DCA Jan. 28, 1992); Seagate Condominium Ass'n v. Duffy, 330 So.2d 484, 485 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). The rule against restraints on alienation "has long been recognized as precluding only unlimited or absolute restraints on alienation." Seagate Condominium, 330 So.2d at 485 (emphasis in original).

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612 So. 2d 636, 1993 WL 5857, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/camino-gardens-assn-inc-v-mckim-fladistctapp-1993.