Sloway Cabin v. Extreme

2025 MT 161
Montana Supreme Court·Decided July 29, 2025·No. DA 24-0530·Published

Opinion

07/29/2025

DA 24-0530

Case Number: DA 24-0530

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 2025 MT 161

SLOWAY CABIN, a Montana limited liability company,

Plaintiff, Counter-Defendant, and Appellee,

v.

KEVIN EXTREME and JEANNINE EXTREME,

Defendants, Counterclaimants, and Appellants.

APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, In and For the County of Mineral, Cause No. DV-21-68 Honorable Jason Marks, Presiding Judge

COUNSEL OF RECORD:

For Appellants:

J.R. Casillas, Orr McDonnell Law, Missoula, Montana For Appellee:

Cory R. Laird, Jane E. Cowley, Riley M. Wavra, Laird Cowley, PLLC, Missoula, Montana

Submitted on Briefs: May 14, 2025 Decided: July 29, 2025

Filed:

Clerk

Justice Ingrid Gustafson delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Kevin and Jeannine Extreme appeal from the August 7, 2024 Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order issued by the Fourth Judicial District Court, Mineral County. The District Court’s order enjoined the Extremes from further violating restrictive covenants applicable to their property in the Sloway Flats Minor Subdivision, ordered them to remedy their violations of the covenants, and awarded attorney fees to Sloway Cabin, LLC (Sloway).

¶2 We address the following restated issues on appeal:

1. Whether the District Court manifestly abused its discretion by enjoining the Extremes from violating the Subdivision’s restrictive covenants.

2. Whether the District Court abused its discretion by awarding attorney fees to Sloway.

¶3 We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶4 In 1970, Peter Martin purchased land by the Clark Fork River near St. Regis. Martin patented portable sawmilling and logging equipment and began to operate a business selling the same, which eventually became incorporated as Precision Sawmill Systems (PSS). He built a large shop on the property in the late 1970s where PSS built its equipment. Martin eventually sold PSS to Jerry McConnell in 2001 and moved to Missoula. He made “very, very rare” trips to the property to consult for PSS on projects after 2001. Martin sought approval from Mineral County to subdivide the property, and the County issued a preliminary approval of his 4-lot proposed subdivision in 2002. The

County sent a letter noting one of the conditions for final approval was that restrictive covenants must be added. Martin did not subdivide the property at that time.

¶5 In December 2004, Martin sold the property to Bryan and Robin Foster. Martin wanted to retain title to a portion of the property, so title to the entire property was transferred to the Fosters and the Fosters then leased the portion Martin desired back to him while he worked on subdividing the property into two tracts.1 Approximately a year later, Martin completed the subdivision process and the Sloway Flats Minor Subdivision (the Subdivision) was established. The Subdivision contained two lots: Tract 1-A, the larger portion containing the residence and shop, and Tract 1-B, a smaller portion near the river. Both a plat reflecting the creation of the Subdivision and the Subdivision’s Covenants and Restrictions were recorded. The Subdivision’s covenants, adopted for the “purpose of enhancing and protecting the value, desirability and attractiveness of the real property” contain numerous restrictions which prohibit, among other things: using a lot “for any commercial business”; keeping horses, cows, or other barnyard animals on a lot; engaging in any activity which violates state or local regulations related to water supply, sewage disposal, sanitation, and air pollution; using a lot as a dumping or storage area for rubbish, trash, garbage, or other waste; the discharging of firearms; engaging in noxious or offensive activity; keeping a mobile or modular home on a lot for any period of time; and failing to comply with the Mineral County Weed Board Policy or to reseed any disturbed

1 Bryan Foster described this arrangement as “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in my life.”

areas to minimize erosion and weed growth. The Subdivision’s covenants were recorded on February 1, 2006. The Fosters deeded Tract 1-B back to Martin on March 7, 2006. In April of 2006, McConnell sold PSS to Steve Freeman. At the time, PSS did not have a pending order and the shop was not being used on a daily basis. Freeman operated PSS out of the shop sporadically until 2012.2 After 2012, Freeman and PSS “didn’t do a whole lot” and the shop was used “basically for storing the equipment[.]”

¶6 In 2012, Martin sold Tract 1-B to Kate Supplee, who had been visiting the area since 2004 and had purchased property adjacent to the Subdivision in 2007 (a cabin property not subject to the Subdivision’s covenants but subject to its own independent set of restrictive covenants). Supplee transferred ownership of Tract 1-B to Sloway, a single-member LLC she owned, in 2019. Supplee/Sloway worked with the Fosters on weed abatement and did not observe any activity indicating the Subdivision’s covenants were being violated during the 2012-2021 period.

¶7 In 2021, the Extremes began looking for property near St. Regis and discovered Tract 1-A was for sale through an online listing. The Extremes visited the property two or three times prior to closing. On one visit, Freeman and Bryan Foster showed Kevin the shop. According to Freeman, during that visit, Foster noted the covenants restricted the operation of a business on the property. The Extremes took title to Tract 1-A from the Fosters on March 25, 2021. The Warranty Deed noted the existence of the covenants and

2 In Freeman’s words, “[y]ou might sell something today and you might build that for six months to finish that project. It might be 18 months before you sell something again.”

the Extremes’ title commitment excepted from coverage the “Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions recorded as 99027.” Craig Otte, the Extremes’ realtor, was aware of the covenants on the property—and informed the Extremes about them at closing—but did not believe they were enforceable because neighboring properties (not subject to the Subdivision’s covenants) had farm animals and due to the large shop on the property.

¶8 Immediately upon the Extremes taking title to Tract 1-A, Sloway noticed an abrupt change in use. The Extremes began to operate a commercial towing company, diesel repair shop, and impound lot on Tract 1-A. There was also evidence presented the Extremes were: using Tract 1-A for commercial logging; leaving waste from bulldozing forest land with no timeframe on when it would be cleaned up; dumping various garbage; discharging firearms at a shooting range they constructed and planned to expand; storing heavy equipment and junk vehicles; excavating part of the streambed in violation of Montana’s 310 law3; and intending to run cattle on the property, among other things. In May of 2021, Sloway, though counsel, sent the Extremes a letter, via both certified and regular mail, informing them of their violations of the covenants and Sloway’s intent to enforce them. Sloway’s letter requested the Extremes immediately cease violating the Subdivision’s covenants and that, if they did not, Sloway would file for injunctive relief and request its

3 The District Court took judicial notice of the summary judgment order made by the Fourth Judicial District Court, Mineral County, in Cause No. DV-23-20, Mineral Conservation District v. Kevin Extreme. In that order, the district court granted summary judgment to the Mineral Conservation District related to Kevin’s violation of the 310 law, imposed a $5,000 civil penalty, ordered Kevin “to restore the Clark Fork River riverbank and its adjacent riverbed as recommended by the Mineral Conservation Supervisors from the damage his illegal project caused to them as near their prior conditions as possible” and ordered Kevin to cooperate with the Mineral Conservation District in developing a mutually-acceptable restoration plan.

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