Santa Fe Estates, Inc. v. Concerned Residents of Santa Fe North, Inc.

2009 NMCA 033, 207 P.3d 1143, 146 N.M. 166, 2009 WL 1312897
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 18, 2009
Docket27,856
StatusPublished

This text of 2009 NMCA 033 (Santa Fe Estates, Inc. v. Concerned Residents of Santa Fe North, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Santa Fe Estates, Inc. v. Concerned Residents of Santa Fe North, Inc., 2009 NMCA 033, 207 P.3d 1143, 146 N.M. 166, 2009 WL 1312897 (N.M. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} This appeal follows our decision in Concerned Residents of Santa Fe North, Inc. v. Santa Fe Estates, Inc. (Residents I), 2008-NMCA-042, 143 N.M. 811, 182 P.3d 794, which contains the background before the continuation of the litigation resulting in this appeal. We will refer to the continued litigation resulting in this appeal as Residents II. The parties in Residents II are Concerned Residents of Santa Fe North, Inc. (Residents), Santa Fe Estates, Inc., and Ridgetop Road LLC (collectively, Estates).

{2} In Residents I, we held that covenants in a settlement agreement between Residents and Estates created restrictions with respect to Estates’ commercial property and that Estates was to record the restrictions as restrictive covenants. 2008-NMCA-042, ¶¶ 59-68, 143 N.M. 811, 182 P.3d 794. After Estates recorded the restrictive covenants it sought in Residents II a declaration that Residents had no right to enforce the recorded covenants. The district court granted partial, final summary judgment in favor of Estates because (1) Residents “[did] not own property which could be viewed as the dominant estate” and the covenants themselves did not create covenants in gross, and (2) the agreement between Residents and Estates did not clearly state that Residents had a right to enforce the covenants. The court also believed that the judge who decided Residents I at the trial level ruled that the agreement did not provide for a contractual right to enforce the covenants.

{3} The district court was correct. Any right of Residents to enforce the restrictive covenants could arise only from clear provisions in the settlement agreement creating a personal covenant in gross 1 and granting Residents the right to enforce the personal covenants in gross. No such provision exists in the settlement agreement, and we will not imply either a personal covenant in gross or a right to enforce the recorded restrictive covenants. Thus, Residents has no right to enforce the covenants. We therefore affirm the district court.

DISCUSSION

{4} Residents sets out three arguments to support its single point on appeal that it has the right to enforce the covenants. Residents first argues that it has a right to enforce the covenants because if it is precluded from doing so, it will have been given a right in Residents I to require Estates to record restrictive covenants, but it will have no remedy. Residents calls upon the maxim in equity that there is no right without a remedy. See Armijo v. Town of Atrisco, 62 N.M. 440, 456-57, 312 P.2d 91, 101-02 (1957) (indicating in reference to the maxim that somewhere in the vast reservoir of equitable relief the answer may be found to resolve the difficulty in placing common lands of the land grant in the true owners of beneficial interests). Residents’ second argument is that because the agreement gave Residents the right to have restrictive covenants placed on Estates’ commercial property, the agreement thereby created a servitude burdening the commercial property and benefitting Residents with a personal covenant in gross. Residents’ third argument is that if anyone has an enforcement right, it would be Residents “since third party beneficiary rights derive from a party to the [agreement].”

{5} Residents does not show in its brief in chief where it preserved these arguments in the district court. See Rule 12-213(A)(4) NMRA (requiring, for each issue raised, “a statement explaining how the issue was preserved in the court below”); Crutchfield v. N.M. Dep’t of Taxation & Revenue, 2005-NMCA-022, ¶ 14, 137 N.M. 26, 106 P.3d 1273 (stating that an appellant must “specifically point out where, in the record, the party invoked the court’s ruling on the issue”). Estates raises this preservation issue, and Residents, in its reply brief, addresses the issue by quoting the following from a memorandum it filed in the district court in support of its response to Estates’ motion for summary judgment.

The question is not whether [Residents] has a benefit, the question is whether [Residents] established a contractual right, whether it benefits by that right or has obtained that right for charitable purposes for the benefit of others is of no consequence. [Residents] does not need to own property which is benefited or which is the dominant estate relating to the covenants. Covenants, assuming they are easements, can be “in gross” and do not have to be attached to a dominant estate. [Residents] is the entity that entered into the Settlement Agreement and is the entity that has the right to enforce the Settlement Agreement. Whether there are third party beneficiaries who would have a similar right of enforcement is another question. [Residents] believes that its enforcement rights are clear.

Further, Residents states that the hearing in the district court on the issue “focused on whether Residents could have a right of enforcement because it did not own land which could benefit from the covenants.” Residents also states that the district court framed the issue as, “Residents did not, and apparently could not, create covenants in gross which it can enforce.”

{6} As for Residents’ first argument based on the maxim in equity that there is no right without a remedy, we agree with Estates that this theory was not argued in the district court. Residents therefore did not preserve it, and we will not consider it on appeal. See Brown v. Trujillo, 2004-NMCA-040, ¶ 39, 135 N.M. 365, 88 P.3d 881 (“We do not review arguments that are raised for the first time on appeal.”).

{7} As for Residents’ third argument, which is based on Section 2.6, Comment (e) of the Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes (2000), relating to contracts that create a servitude benefitting third parties, Residents has not indicated where, specifically, it raised the argument in the district court or whether that court addressed this issue. We agree with Estates that this third argument cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. See Brown, 2004-NMCA-040, ¶ 39, 135 N.M. 365, 88 P.3d 881.

{8} Residents’ second argument was adequately preserved. The argument is that the settlement agreement created restrictive covenants that burdened Estates’ interest in its commercial property and ran with the land to bind Estates’ successors, while at the same time the settlement agreement created personal covenants in gross in favor of Residents. Essentially, Residents’ logic is that since Residents had the right to require Estates to create and record restrictive covenants, while it was known that Residents owned no benefitted property, the covenants had to be considered in gross and personal and therefore enforceable. The district court addressed issues of whether the agreement created covenants in gross and whether the agreement clearly and unambiguously established a contract right in Residents to enforce the restrictive covenants. We, therefore, choose to address Residents’ second argument.

Standard of Review

{9} The parties agree that the standard of review in this appeal is that the appeal from the grant of the motion for summary judgment presents a question of law that this Court reviews de novo. Montgomery v.

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Bluebook (online)
2009 NMCA 033, 207 P.3d 1143, 146 N.M. 166, 2009 WL 1312897, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santa-fe-estates-inc-v-concerned-residents-of-santa-fe-north-inc-nmctapp-2009.