A Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani multi-state team, including Partners Christine Barker, Sean Ferron, and Keith Cramer, obtained a defense verdict on behalf of a homeowners’ association (HOA) in an Orange County Superior Court bench trial spanning two months.
The case began in 2022 when a homeowner sued after the Architectural Review Committee and HOA Board of Directors declined his teardown-and-rebuild plans due to view and aesthetic concerns. After a motion for summary judgment ruling in which the court found that the existing covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) did not protect views, the HOA held a special election to add explicit view protections to the CC&Rs. At the February 2025 trial call, the plaintiff sought leave to file a third amended complaint challenging the validity of that vote, drastically reframing the case from CC&R enforcement to one of election validity. A second plaintiff then filed a parallel action toward the end of the limitations period, and the two cases were consolidated.
During this time, the plaintiffs’ counsel also circulated an unsigned document styled as the court’s “Statement of Decision” to the HOA membership before any such decision had been entered. The court addressed the conduct directly and ordered a retraction and apology by counsel.
Ultimately, the court upheld the validity of the September 2024 CC&R amendment election under the Davis-Stirling Act and held the resulting view protection amendment valid, enforceable, and retroactively binding on the entire membership.
The team would like to extend their gratitude to Senior Paralegal Joni Etue and Paralegal Shawna McKeown for their invaluable contributions in achieving this successful outcome.