Hoy v. INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF BAYVILLE

765 F. Supp. 2d 158, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18643, 2011 WL 679907
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 25, 2011
Docket1:10-mj-00094
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 765 F. Supp. 2d 158 (Hoy v. INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF BAYVILLE) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoy v. INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF BAYVILLE, 765 F. Supp. 2d 158, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18643, 2011 WL 679907 (E.D.N.Y. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOSEPH F. BIANCO, District Judge:

On January 11, 2010, plaintiffs Thomas Hoy and Elke Hoy (hereinafter “plaintiffs” or the “Hoys”) brought this action against defendants New York SMSA Limited Partnership doing business as (“d/b/a”) Verizon Wireless, Nextel of New York d/b/a Nextel Communications, T-Mobile Northeast LLC, as successor in interest to Omnipoint Facilities Network 2, LLC d/b/a T-Mobile, Sprint Spectrum Realty Company, L.P., as successor in interest to Sprint Spectrum, L.P. (collectively the “Wireless Defendants”), and the Incorporated Village of Bayville (hereinafter “Village” or ‘Village Defendant”) (collectively “defendants”) to enforce restrictive covenants in a deed that ran with the property — located on Schoolhouse Road in Bayville, New York — that was conveyed to the Village in 1950. In particular, the lawsuit alleges that an “Antenna Farm” consisting of more than fifty antennas on the water tower located on that property — which are owned, operated, and maintained by the Wireless Defendants, pursuant to a lease *161 with the Village — violates the restrictive covenants in the deed conveyed to the Village.

In this lawsuit, plaintiffs (1) seek a declaratory judgment that the restrictive covenants, prohibiting the conveyed property from being put to commercial uses or uses found to be “offensive, dangerous or obnoxious” to property owners within one mile of the property, were violated based upon Wireless Defendants’ use of the property and the Village Defendant granting licenses to the Wireless Defendants to install and maintain antenna structures on the property, and (2) claim that they were deprived of procedural due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in connection with the Village’s decision to allow the use of the property in this manner. In connection with these claims, plaintiffs seek, inter alia, an injunction ordering the removal of the Wireless Defendants’ antenna structures.

Presently before the Court is the defendants’ motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 1 For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants in part and denies in part defendants’ motion. As a threshold matter, plaintiffs have abandoned any claim based upon alleged radiofrequency (“RF”) emissions from the antennas. Specifically, with respect to Count I, the Court concludes that (1) plaintiffs have provided sufficient allegations in the complaint to state a plausible claim against the defendants that the alleged problems with noise associated with antennas (which plaintiffs describe in their opposition papers as “power-plant like sounds”) violates the covenant in the deed regarding “offensive, dangerous or obnoxious” uses of the property, and (2) plaintiffs lack standing to assert a claim based upon the “commercial enterprises” covenant in the deed. With respect to Count II, in which the plaintiffs assert that they have been deprived of their Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, the Court finds that plaintiffs’ conclusory due process allegations cannot survive a motion to dismiss. However, the Court will grant plaintiffs leave to replead this claim to attempt to correct these pleading defects.

I. Background

A. Facts

The following facts are taken from the complaint (“Compl.”) and are not findings of fact by the Court. Instead, the Court will assume the facts in the complaint to be true and, for purposes of the pending 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, will construe them in a light most favorable to plaintiff, the non-moving party.

Plaintiffs reside at, and are the fee owners of the real property at, 24 Cat Hollow Road, Bayville, New York. (Compl. ¶¶ 35-36, 71.) The Village Defendant is a municipal corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York. (Id. ¶ 38.) The Wireless Defendants own, operate and maintain cellular and/or RF antennas 2 within the State of New York. (Id. ¶¶ 40, 43, 46.)

*162 In 1950, the owner of real property situated on Schoolhouse Road (the “Property”), Ms. Mona Williams (the “Grantor”), granted and conveyed title to the Property to the Village Defendant. (Id. ¶¶ 47-48.) The Village Defendant covenanted and agreed, for itself, its successors and assigns, that the Property be held subject to the conditions set forth within the deed that:

[The Property] shall be used for municipal uses and purposes and for recreational facilities for use by the People of Bayville, but no public amusements, concessions, vending, restaurants or other commercial enterprises shall be permitted thereon, and, in addition, no use of the premises shall be made or permitted which would be offensive, dangerous or obnoxious to the owners or any owner (now or hereafter) of land within a radius of one mile of the premises whether by reason of smoke, odor, fumes or any other use whatsoever offensive to such owners or owner of land.

(Id. ¶¶ 49, 75, Ex. A, ¶ 2.)

According to the complaint, the conditions set forth within the deed became covenants running with the land, which vested property rights to the owners of properties within one mile radius of the Property. (Id. ¶¶ 50, 76.) At all relevant times, plaintiffs have lived within one-quarter mile of the Property. (Id. ¶ 37.) After the Property was deeded to the Village Defendant by the Grantor, as expressly provided within the deed, the Village Defendant caused a public water tower to be constructed on the Property. (Id. ¶ 52.)

According to the complaint, the Village Defendant breached the restrictive covenants by granting licenses to the Wireless Defendants to install and maintain more than fifty antennas (the “Antenna Farm”) on the water tower and, thus, permitted the Property to be used for commercial purposes. (Id. ¶¶ 7, 54-55, 62-70.) Each antenna within the Antenna Farm is owned, operated and maintained by the Wireless Defendants as part of a commercial enterprise. (Id. ¶¶ 56-57.) Plaintiffs allege that the use of the Property as an Antenna Farm is both offensive and obnoxious, including that the more than fifty antennas are visually and aesthetically offensive, obnoxious and contrary to the character and appearance of the neighborhood. (Id. ¶ 8, 77, 82, 84,105.) The defendants were aware of the restrictive covenants at the time they entered into the respective licensing agreements, and the Village Defendant has a contractual right to terminate each agreement in the event “it is determined to be beyond the authority of the [Village]” to grant such license. (Id. ¶ 86-87, 90-99.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
765 F. Supp. 2d 158, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18643, 2011 WL 679907, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoy-v-incorporated-village-of-bayville-nyed-2011.