Ironwood Owners Association IX v. Solomon

Ironwood Owners Association (the association) (plaintiff) sued Bernard and Perlee Solomon (defendants), lot owners in the Ironwood planned development. The association sought a permanent injunction to compel the Solomons to remove eight date palm trees that the Solomons had planted on their lot without first getting the approval of the development’s Architectural Control Committee (the architectural committee) as required by the association’s declarations and covenants. Under the declarations, association members elected a board of directors to conduct the association’s business and to enforce all the association’s bylaws, its articles of incorporation, and its covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CCRs). The architectural committee’s duties, standards, and procedures for approving and rejecting plans for improvements on any lot were set out in detail in the CCRs. Evidence was presented that when the Solomons planted their trees, they did not first file a plan with the architectural committee and never received the committee’s approval for that landscaping. No evidence was proffered regarding either the association or the architectural committee’s actions vis-à-vis their CCR-enforcement actions. The trial court granted the association’s motion for summary judgment on the permanent injunction after it found that the Solomons violated the CCRs requiring them to file a plan and get the architectural committee’s approval before they planted trees on their lot. The Solomons appealed.