Deibel v. Wilson

150 N.E.2d 448, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 471, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 988
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 13, 1957
DocketNo. 5792
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 150 N.E.2d 448 (Deibel v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deibel v. Wilson, 150 N.E.2d 448, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 471, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 988 (Ohio Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

OPINION

By HORNBECK, J.

This is an appeal on questions of law and fact from a judgment of the Common Pleas Court denying an injunction to plaintiffs and dismissing their petition.

Plaintiffs are owners of dwellings in Rosemary Addition to the City of Columbus. Defendant, a physician in the general practice of medicine, since 1946 has been the owner of Lot No. 77 and one half of Lot No. 78 in Rosemary Addition, also known as 26-28 West Henderson Road.

The deed through which defendant acquired his lots carried, by reference, a restriction that his lots “shall be used for (1) residence purposes only and (2) not for any purpose of business or trade.” (Numbering ours.) The plaintiffs acquired their lots with like restriction.

By Ordinance No. 1206-54 of the City of Columbus, Rosemary Addition was zoned and plaintiffs’ and defendant’s lots- were classified as a residential district.

Defendant desired to build a residence in which provision would be made for his office and engaged an architect to prepare plans for the structure. After the plans and specifications had been completed and when the defendant was ready to proceed with the erection of his proposed building, although he had been informed that re-zoning would not be required, upon learning that some of the residents of the addition [473]*473were objecting to the erection of the building, he made application to the Planning Commission, supported by a petition of property owners, for a change in the zoning of his lots from R-3, Single Family Residential, to C-2 Commercial. This petition was heard and refused because of the residential character of the neighborhood.

Defendant applied to the Division of Building Regulations, Department of Public Safety, for a building permit, which was refused.

We have no formal order setting forth the refusal of the permit: but Mr. John Lorain, a building inspector, testified that the reasons for the refusal were that the plans “were not of an entirely residential character” and that “They show that it [the building! will be used * * * for the treatment of patients there, and show workrooms and laboratory, and so forth.” He was asked what position the department took in regard to a house that was already there and used for residential purposes and converted to a doctor’s office, as compared to one where the doctor’s office is a part of the original construction. He answered, “Well, in * * * an existing residence, we will go along * * * with a doctor or professional man having his offices in a building, as long as there is no — I mean nothing there to show us that it will become a public nuisance.” He said also that the application was rejected because there was “no existing residence on the lots” and the office could not be accessory to the residence.

.The defendant was advised by the Planning Commission to take his problem to the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which he did. This Board has jurisdiction, under Section 47.25, Zoning Ordinance, “to hear and decide appeals from and review any order, * * * decision, or determination made by the building inspector in the administration of this ordinance” and “shall make such order ■* * * as in its opinion ought to be made in the premises, and to that end- shall have the powers of the office from whom the appeal was taken.”

After an open hearing on the referral, at which were present the defendant and certain of the plaintiffs, the Board reversed the order of the building inspector and ordered the permit to be issued.

Upon these facts, other provisions of the zoning ordinance, and the evidence developed in this suit, the plaintiffs base their action and prayer for a permanent injunction enjoining the defendant “from proceeding with the construction of said medical and residence building or that part thereof which is to be used for medical practice and trade,

The first cause of action in plaintiffs’ petition avers a violation of the building restriction in the deed to defendant.

The second cause of action avers violations of the zoning ordinance. We speak of the zoning ordinance in the singular form although there are two ordinances offered as exhibits but, insofar as this case is concerned, they do not differ.

Upon trial had in Common Pleas Court, a temporary or permanent injunction was denied. Thereafter, when the appeal was perfected, a temporary restraining order was granted. In the interim between the granting of the permit to build and the issuance of the injunction, de[474]*474fendant proceeded with his building until it had reached completion of the frame work, the roofing, and some of the siding.

We now consider the first cause of action and hold that the proof will not justify the relief prayed for, for three reasons:

Uj The restriction applies to the use of the lot for the prohibited purposes. The restriction was to run for thirty-five years and will expire on May 18, 1858. The only use which conceivably could offend the covenant is a use of a part of the structure for a medical office. That use cannot be for more than a few months, at most, and probably will not begin before the restriction has terminated. There will be, at the effective date of any injunction that might be granted by reason of this proceeding, very little, if any, value to the dominant lots in the restrictive covenant. Brown v. Huber et al, 80 Oh St 183, 206, 207. This is true, not because of change in the character of buildings in the district, but because at the most there could be but a very short period left in the duration of the restriction.

(2) If no part of the structure could be used for such office purpose during the life of the restriction, that should not prevent the completion of the building and its use for residential purposes only.

(3) The use proposed is not, in our judgment, for “business” or “trade.” We will discuss this phase of the restriction when we come to consider the zoning ordinance.

We next consider the second cause of action of the petition.

The sections of the zoning ordinance here involved, which, it is claimed, have application to the facts developed, are:

“Section 47.02.3. * * * Within an R-3 area district no buildings * 4 * shall be used and no buildings shall be erected which are arranged, intended or designed to be used for other than one or more of the following specified uses:

“A. Dwelling: Single Family Residence together with such other buildings as are * J' * appurtenant thereto. 4- * *, and shall have provision on the lot of at least one off-street parking space per dwelling

“Section 47.04 [of Ordinance No. 966.54] Accessory Uses in.Residential Districts. Residential Character. An accessory use customarily incident to a use permitted in a residential district, * * * shall be permitted in such districts respectively, subject to the limitations stated herein, and shall not be such as to infringe upon the residential character of the district.”

Section 47.04, Paragraph 2: “The office of an architect, attorney, clergyman, dentist, engineer, physician, surgeon or other professional person may be located in a residence or an apartment used by such person as his private residence. These office uses do not include the services of more than three (3) other ■ persons not residing on the premises, work rooms, clinics, or the treatment or housing of animals.”

“4.

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Bluebook (online)
150 N.E.2d 448, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 471, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 988, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deibel-v-wilson-ohioctapp-1957.