Sky View Financial, Inc. v. Bellinger
Iowa Supreme Court
554 N.W.2d 694 (1996)

- Written by Mary Phelan D'Isa, JD
Facts
Restrictive covenants recorded by the developer in 1988 for the Sun Valley Lake property development provided that assessments could not be levied against the developer or any successor developer and that the declaration could be amended “by the affirmative vote of a majority of the Owners of all Lots in the Development.” In 1992 the original developer sold its interest to Sky View Financial, Inc. (Sky View) (plaintiff) and deeded some lots to Sky View’s shareholders, Clinton Anderson and Wendell Sollars (plaintiffs), individually. Under the 1988 covenants, the Sun Valley Lake Property Owners Association (the association) (defendant) levied assessments against Anderson’s and Sollars’s lots. When Anderson and Sollars refused to pay, the association sued. The trial court’s decision—that Sky View was a successor developer exempt from assessment, but that Anderson and Sollars, as individual owners, were not—was affirmed. In 1993 at an owners’ annual meeting, a vote was taken to amend the declaration to allow amendment by an affirmative vote of a majority of owners in which each owner had one vote irrespective of the number of lots owned. The amendment also removed the assessment exemption for developers, and the association then levied an assessment against Sky View. Sky View filed a declaratory-judgment action, claiming the 1993 covenants were null and void because they were amended by a simple majority of owners irrespective of the number of lots owned, in violation of the 1988 covenants. The trial court entered summary judgment for Sky View. The association appealed, arguing that because the declaration language was unambiguous, a one-vote-per-member interpretation was mandated.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Neuman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.