Schack v. Property Owners Association of Sunset Bay
Texas Court of Appeals
555 S.W.3d 339 (2018)
- Written by Jamie Milne, JD
Facts
Timothy Raub (defendant) used the website Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) to rent his home to vacationers. Raub’s neighbors John and Debbie Schack (plaintiffs) sued Raub, claiming that his short-term rentals violated applicable real-property covenants and restrictions that limited occupancy of Raub’s house to a single family. The Schacks also sued the Property Owners Association of Sunset Bay (POA) (defendant), the neighborhood homeowner’s association, for failing to stop Raub from renting his house. At trial, the Schacks wanted to introduce content from the reviews section of Raub’s VRBO page that showed that many of the renters were not single families. For example, one review referenced a couples’ retreat in which nine couples stayed at Raub’s house, and another referenced a stay by 18 persons from five different families. The trial court excluded the reviews as hearsay, and the jury ultimately held in favor of Raub and the POA. The Schacks appealed, arguing, among other things, that the reviews were not hearsay because Raub’s failure to remove them from his VRBO page constituted adoption of the reviews, making them statements attributable to a party opponent.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rodriguez, J.)
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