Grindstaff v. Oaks Owners' Ass'n

2016 OK CIV APP 73, 386 P.3d 1035, 2016 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 40
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 25, 2016
DocketCase No. 112,671
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 2016 OK CIV APP 73 (Grindstaff v. Oaks Owners' Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grindstaff v. Oaks Owners' Ass'n, 2016 OK CIV APP 73, 386 P.3d 1035, 2016 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 40 (Okla. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION BY

DEBORAH B. BARNES, JUDGE:

¶ 1 Plaintiffs/Appellants Michael and Debbie Grindstaff (Homeowners) sustained damage to their property as a result of water eroding the bank of a creek behind their home. Homeowners asserted several theories—including negligence and breach of contract—against their neighborhood homeowners association, Defendant/Appellee Oaks Owners’ Association, Inc. (HOA). Homeowners appeal the Order in which the trial court, following a three-day nonjury trial, found the damage “was due to erosion,” and “rule[d] that the June 2010 storm was an act of God and/or force majeure under” the pertinent terms of the neighborhood homeowners association bylaws. In addition, the trial court found Homeowners failed to mitigate their damages, stating: “The evidence was clear that [Homeowners] took no action to address the continuing erosion issues on their property other than putting tarps over the soil.” The' court found HOA did have a duty “to maintain and repair” the common area behind Homeowners’ property, but the court ruled this duty did “not include a duty to affirmatively install erosion control” to prevent the natural erosion of the banks of the creek. The court found HOA’s duty to maintain and repair required it, instead, to “keep['] the channel free of debris- and fallen trees,” and found HOA met this duty by keeping the creek clear of such debris.- Gon-[1038]*1038sequently, the court ruled in favor of HOA. Based on our review, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Homeowners filed their original petition in May 2011. Homeowners initially named both HOA and the City of Oklahoma City (City) as defendants in their original petition and first amended petition. As against City, Homeowners alleged it was negligent in failing to properly perform its duties to inspect, maintain, limit and otherwise secure a proper flow of water. City filed an answer in which it asserted, among other things, that it is exempt from liability under the Governmental Tort Claims Act, 51 O.S. §§ 151-172. In September 2012, City was dismissed from this action by Homeowners without prejudice.

¶ 3 In March 2013, Homeowners filed their second amencjed petition against HOA only, and the case proceeded against HOA. HOA filed an answer asserting, among other things, that the damages sustained by Homeowners “were caused by an Act of God and precluded under the terms of the By-Laws,” and that Homeowners’ lot “abuts a naturally occurring creek” and Homeowners had an “obligation to take reasonable steps to protect their own property from the effects of erosion.”

¶ 4 At trial, Homeowners asserted in their opening statement that HOA was charged with the duty of maintaining the common elements, including the creek behind their property; they asserted this duty was “a proactive duty, not a reactive duty,” Homeowners asserted that, as members of HOA by reason. of their ownership of their lot which they purchased in 1991, they had “no issue about the stability of [their] lot or the drainage channel” until the late spring or early summer of 2007 when a large tree, standing on the bank of the creek closest to Homeowners’ property, collapsed into the creek, taking with it a portion of the creek bank. At this time, although their property was not yet damaged in any way, Homeowners asserted they sent a letter to HOA advising HOA of the situation and expressing their belief that the tree was a healthy tree which collapsed as a result of “long-term erosion from the creek activity.” Homeowners asserted they stated in the letter that although the creek bank had been relatively stable for the last seventeen years, “this tree fall and the heavy recent rainfalls [have] caused some creek bank erosion which has the potential to damage our property.”

¶ 5 Homeowners’ asserted that HOA’s response to this letter was, in essence, that HOA was not responsible and “it’s really the City’s problem.” They asserted that HOA also expressed to Homeowners that HOA did “not want to create a situation in which [HOA] becomes responsible for erosion, fences, retaining walls, etc.” Homeowners’ asserted, however: “it’s clear from the [covenants and bylaws] that it is [HOA’s] duty, not the City’s” or “the individual homeowners.” They asserted that although HOA, in September 2007, did remove the collapsed tree out of the creek, HOA never hired an engineer, and never performed any inspections, in an effort to prevent creek bank erosion.

¶ 6 Homeowners’ asserted the damage to their property first occurred in June 2010 when “there was a significant rain[.]” They asserted that as a result of this rainstorm another large tree collapsed, this time taking a “large portion” of their lot abutting the common area. Although the water in the creek did not rise above the banks, Homeowners asserted the large quantity of rainwater flowing through the creek caused “scouring and erosion down at the base of the bank which affect[ed] the top of it.”

¶ 7 Homeowners’ asserted that after continued correspondence with HOA, HOA stated it was not its responsibility to prevent erosion or to repair the damage caused by the erosion. Homeowners then filed the lawsuit in May of 2011.

¶ 8 Homeowners’ further asserted that, following the filing of the lawsuit, the erosion of the creek bank continued through 2012 and 2013, and, as a result of further rains “that happened May 2013, ... [Homeowners’ back porch is now] hanging over the edge” of the creek.

¶ 9 HOA admitted at trial that damage has occurred to Homeowners’ property as a result of erosion. HOA stated that when Home[1039]*1039owners purchased their lot in 1991, the lot backed up to a natural creek channel, a “channel that naturally and constantly erodes.” Regarding the June 2010 rainstorm, HOA asserted “it was considered to be a 500-year storm event,”1 a storm that filled “the creek channel with an unprecedented amount of water that took out a portion of the creek banks along the back of [Homeowners’] property.”

¶ 10 HOA stated that, as a neighborhood homeowners association, it “is comprised of 152 lot owners who live in The,Oaks subdivision,” including Homeowners, and “[e]ach year these homeowners .,. elect board members from among the homeowners who ... serve on the Board of Directors for a one-year term.” HOA asserted:

[T]he question in this case is really whether these volunteered board members ... who served these one-year terms used" ordinary care in maintaining the natural creeks that "flowed throughout The Oaks subdivision and whether these board members reasonably interpreted the covenants, conditions, and restrictions, ... and the bylaws in carrying out their responsibilities as board members for the HOA.

¶ 11 HOA admitted it had a responsibility to “maintain and repair” the creek, but asserted this only “means [it had the responsibility] to keep the water flowing properly through the creek channel” and that it “must remove trees and dear out debris so that [such objects don’t] dam up the water flowing through the creek.”

¶ 12 HOA admits, below and on appeal, that it did not install erosion control measures to protect Homeowners’ property from the natural erosion of the creek. HOA states in its Answer Brief on appeal as follows:

There was no factual question about whether [HOA] did or did not install erosion control measures in order to protect [Homeowners’] property. [HOA] did not

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Bluebook (online)
2016 OK CIV APP 73, 386 P.3d 1035, 2016 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grindstaff-v-oaks-owners-assn-oklacivapp-2016.