Lineberry v. Riley Farms Property Owners Ass'n

236 S.W.3d 534, 95 Ark. App. 286, 2006 WL 1413450
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMay 24, 2006
DocketCA 05-399
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 236 S.W.3d 534 (Lineberry v. Riley Farms Property Owners Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lineberry v. Riley Farms Property Owners Ass'n, 236 S.W.3d 534, 95 Ark. App. 286, 2006 WL 1413450 (Ark. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

Larry D. Vaught, Judge.

Margie Lineberry appeals from a jury verdict finding that she violated two restrictive covenants contained in her residential subdivision’s bill of assurance. She also appeals the trial court’s award of $22,989.70 in attorneys’ fees and $382.75 in costs to appellee Riley Farm Property Owners Association. We affirm.

In April 2004, Lineberry purchased property in the Riley Farm subdivision in Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas. Prior to Lineberry moving into the subdivision, the developer of Riley Farm filed a bill of assurance with the office of the recorder of Sebastian County. The bill of assurance contained a number of restrictive covenants, two of which are relevant to the instant case. The first covenant prohibited any resident of Riley Farm from keeping “cattle, swine, poultry, fowl, wild animals[,] or exotic animals in the Addition.” The second required that “[p]lans for all fencing, whether on lot lines or surrounding patios, pools, barns[,] or other areas of the lot must be submitted to, and approved by, the Architectural Control Committee prior to the construction thereof.” This covenant further provided that if the Committee did not approve or disapprove a fence plan within fourteen days of its submission, the plan was deemed approved, and the Association’s resolution of the dispute “shall be binding” unless its resolution was arbitrary and capricious.

Shortly after Lineberry moved into the subdivision, members of the Association discovered that she kept a bobcat at her residence in the subdivision. On May 27, 2004, the Association sent Lineberry a certified letter informing her that keeping a bobcat at her residence violated the restrictive covenant’s prohibition on wild or exotic animals and that she needed to remove it. Lineberry never retrieved the letter from the post office.

On May 21, 2004, Lineberry faxed a letter and a drawing to Lucy Wilkes, office manager for the Association, requesting approval of a plan to erect a fence around her home. After receiving the fax, Wilkes placed a stamp on Lineberry’s letter that read “APPROVED,” with two blank lines underneath the word. The blank lines were provided for the approving signatures of two Commission members, which were required for fence construction in the subdivision. In response to the request, on June 1, 2004, Patrick Mickle, the Commission’s chairman, made notations on the drawing submitted by Lineberry highlighting aspects of her fence construction plan that did not comply with the Riley Farm covenants. Lineberry’s faxed notice never received the requisite signatures.

Onjune 3, 2004, Wilkes spoke with Lineberry by telephone and informed her that her fence application had not been approved and that Association members wanted her to remove the bobcat from the subdivision. The following day, Wilkes and Lineberry met in person to discuss the fence and the bobcat. During this meeting, Wilkes retrieved a copy of the May 27, 2004, certified letter the Association sent Lineberry, read it to her, and encouraged her to pick up the copy waiting for her at the post office. Lineberry never picked up the letter, continued to house the bobcat, and began building her fence.

On June 15, 2004, Roy Vanderpool, a member of the Committee, visited Lineberry’s home and told her that the fence she was building violated the subdivision’s restrictive covenants. Lineberry responded that she believed her construction plan had been approved. Vanderpool then contacted Wilkes to clarify the situation. Wilkes confirmed that Lineberry’s plan had not been approved. Lineberry indicated that she was willing to work with the Committee to bring her fence into compliance. Vanderpool and another member of the Committee, John Callaher, drafted an agreement stating that Lineberry could build a fence but that the fence had to comply with the “set-back line” provision of the covenants. Vanderpool and Callaher signed off on the agreement, and Lineberry committed to comply with the agreement, but instead, continued to build her fence according to her original construction plan.

On July 23, 2004, the Association filed a complaint in Sebastian County Circuit Court. The complaint sought to have Lineberry remove her bobcat from the subdivision and either remove the fence she had built or bring it into compliance with the covenant. The case was tried before a jury on December 20 and 21, 2004. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the Association on the question of whether Lineberry’s keeping of a bobcat in the subdivision violated the terms of the covenant. By a vote of eleven-to-one, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the Association on the question of whether Lineberry’s fence violated the covenants. The trial court entered judgment in favor of Riley Farm on January 3, 2005. On January 6, 2005, the Association filed a motion requesting that Lineberry pay the costs and attorneys’ fees it incurred litigating the case in accordance with the fee provision contained in its bill of assurance. On January 20, 2005, the trial court ordered Lineberry to pay $22,989.70 in attorneys’ fees and $382.75-in costs. It is from this judgment and order that Lineberry appeals.

However, after her appeal was lodged with our court, on February 18, 2005, Lineberry sold her home in Riley Farm. At this time Lineberry had not paid the judgment entered against her; therefore, the Association initiated a garnishment proceeding. On April 22, 2005, Lineberry paid the $23,372.45 in fees and costs that the court had ordered her to pay. On April 28, 2005, the Association filed a motion to dismiss Lineberry’s appeal claiming that because Lineberry no longer lived in Riley Farm and had voluntarily paid the judgment against her, the issue on appeal was moot. On May 25, 2005, in an 8-4 decision, our court voted to deny the Association’s motion to dismiss the appeal. We are mindful of this decision and reach the same conclusion.

If an appellant voluntarily pays a judgment, the appeal from that judgment would be moot, but if the payment is involuntary, an appeal would not be precluded. DeHaven v. T&D Dev. Inc., 50 Ark. App. 193, 901 S.W.2d 30 (1995). We are satisfied that once the writ of garnishment was filed, Lineberry did not “voluntarily” pay the attorneys’ fees. Further, because Lineberry’s economic interests were impaired, she has standing to pursue the appeal. Forrest Constr., Inc. v. Milam, 345 Ark. 1, 43 S.W.3d 140 (2001).

Turning to the merits of appeal, we consider Lineberry’s argument that the trial court erred by refusing to give jury instructions that she had proposed, which set out a test for determining whether an animal should be considered wild. The proffered instructions stated:

An individual animal may be domesticated even where the species of animal is commonly wild. The test to determine whether an individual animal of a species is domesticated is whether:
1) The individual animal has become personal property, with someone who claims title and full ownership rights.
2) The owner or keeper has exercised such training and control over the animal that it may be considered tame.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Myers v. Bogner
380 S.W.3d 529 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 S.W.3d 534, 95 Ark. App. 286, 2006 WL 1413450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lineberry-v-riley-farms-property-owners-assn-arkctapp-2006.