Costa Serena Owners Coalition v. Costa Serena Architectural Comm.

• Decision Date: 24 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. D053553.,No. D053159.,No. D052903.,D052903.,D053159.,D053553.
• Citation: 97 Cal. Rptr. 3d 170,175 Cal.App.4th 1175
• Parties: COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Appellant. COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Respondent; JESS DIAZ, Movant and Appellant. COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

175 Cal.App.4th 1175

97 Cal. Rptr. 3d 170

COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Appellant.

COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Respondent;

JESS DIAZ, Movant and Appellant.

COSTA SERENA OWNERS COALITION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. COSTA SERENA ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE, Defendant and Respondent.

No. D052903.

No. D053159.

No. D053553.

Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division One.

June 24, 2009.

[175 Cal.App.4th 1178]

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Jeffry A. Miller, Matthew B. Stucky, Esther P. Holm and Lisa Ricksecker for Defendant and Appellant and for Defendant and Respondent.

Shifflet, Kane & Konoske and Gregory C. Kane for Plaintiff and Respondent and for Plaintiff and Appellant.

K. Martin White for Movant and Appellant.

OPINION

AARON, J.—

I. INTRODUCTION

Costa Serena is a planned development located in Oceanside, California, that was built in the 1970's. A "Declaration of Restrictions" that governed the community was set to expire at the end of 2006. During that year, a group of homeowners led by the Costa Serena Architectural Committee (the Architectural Committee)—a committee comprised of homeowners who had been elected to enforce the Declaration of Restrictions—attempted to extend the life of the Declaration of Restrictions beyond 2006. Other homeowners in the community opposed extending the Declaration of Restrictions. The group that opposed extending the Declaration of Restrictions was particularly opposed to a provision in the Declaration of Restrictions that required that residents be at least 55 years old. Some of these homeowners formed a group—the Costa Serena Owners Coalition (the Coalition)—and filed an action challenging the actions of the Architectural Committee. The Coalition attacked the Architectural Committee's attempt to extend the Declaration of Restrictions by, among other things, challenging the validity of amendments to the Declarations of Restrictions that had been recorded in 1986, 1987 and 1999, including a unification amendment that was intended to ensure that the entire Costa Serena community would be governed by a single Declarations of Restrictions and a single Architectural Committee.¹

Both the Architectural Committee and the Coalition filed motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Coalition, concluding that the Architectural Committee could not establish that the extension of the UDoR had been accomplished in the manner required by the provisions of the UDoR. The trial court's ruling was premised on its conclusion that the 1986, 1987 and 1999 amendments to, variously, the DoR's and the UDoR were void ab initio because they were enacted in a manner that did not comply with the provision in the DoR's and subsequent UDoR pertaining to amendments. The court entered judgment in favor of the Coalition.

After judgment was entered, homeowner Jess Diaz filed a motion to vacate the judgment. The trial court denied the motion on the ground that the court did not have jurisdiction to consider the motion because the Architectural Committee had filed a notice of appeal before the court was able to rule on Diaz's motion. In addition, the Coalition filed a motion for attorney fees, arguing that the DoR's provided that the prevailing party in litigation concerning the DoR's was entitled to attorney fees. The trial court denied the Coalition's motion for attorney fees.

This matter involves three consolidated appeals, one filed by the Architectural Committee, one filed by Diaz, and one filed by the Coalition. First, the Architectural Committee appeals from the trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of the Coalition. The Architectural Committee contends that the judgment must be reversed because (1) the Coalition's claims are barred by the statute of limitations; (2) the Coalition's claims are barred by the doctrine of laches; and (3) the trial court erred in interpreting the amendment provisions of the DoR's/UDoR to require that the Architectural Committee(s) have recorded a document signed by 75 percent of record owners of the Units, in order to properly amend the DoR's/UDoR. The Architectural Committee further appeals from the trial court's orderexcluding a number of exhibits that the Architectural Committee filed in support of its motion for summary judgment.

Diaz appeals from the postjudgment order of the trial court denying his motion to vacate the judgment. Diaz contends that the trial court retained jurisdiction to consider his motion, and that the court should have vacated the judgment on essentially the same grounds that the Architectural Committee raises on appeal.

The Coalition appeals from the postjudgment order of the trial court pertaining to attorney fees. The Coalition contends that the trial court erred in failing to award it attorney fees pursuant to the language of the DoR's.

We conclude that the trial court erred in ruling that the amendments to the DoR's/UDoR were void ab initio and that they therefore could be collaterally attacked at any time. We further conclude that the Coalition's claims with regard to those amendments are barred by the statute of limitations. Thus, we need not consider whether the amendments that were recorded in 1986, 1987 and 1999 were properly adopted under the terms of the DoR's/UDoR.

We also conclude that the trial court erred in ruling that the Architectural Committee did not comply with the provisions of the UDoR in extending the UDoR in 2006. In reaching this conclusion, we determine that the trial court erroneously sustained objections to a number of the homeowner consent forms that the Architectural Committee submitted in support of its motion for summary judgment. The trial court apparently concluded that some of the consent forms were inadmissible because the property owners' names and the property descriptions on the forms were not identical to the names and property descriptions that appear on the deeds to the properties. We conclude that the consent forms are sufficient to demonstrate that a majority of property owners agreed to extend the UDoR, and that the trial court improperly sustained the Coalition's objections to the consent forms. We therefore reverse the judgment, and direct the trial court to enter judgment in favor of the Architectural Committee.

By reversing the judgment, we render moot Diaz's appeal from the trial court's refusal to consider his motion to vacate the judgment, since, having reversed the judgment, this court can no longer grant Diaz the relief he seeks. Similarly, our reversal of the judgment renders moot the Coalition's appeal pertaining to attorney fees, since the Coalition is not the prevailing party in the litigation.

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Rosedale Homes Development Corporation developed the Costa Serena community in the early 1970's. Upon completion of the seven Units, the entire community consisted of 724 homes.

Each of the seven DoR's governing the seven Units originally contained a restriction that provided that no person under the age of 45 could regularly occupy a residence in Costa Serena.

Each DoR also contained a provision that stated that the DoR would expire on December 31, 2006, and set forth the process by which the DoR could be extended beyond that date. That provision, located in paragraph 16 of each DoR, provided: "Each and all of the foregoing conditions and restrictions shall terminate on December 31, 2006, unless the owners of a majority of said lots have executed and recorded at any time within six (6) months prior to December 31, 2006, in the manner required for a conveyance of real property, a writing in which they agree that said Conditions and Restrictions shall continue for a further specified period and providing therein a similar provision for the further extension of said Conditions and Restrictions, or some of them, provided, also, that the above and foregoing Conditions and Restrictions may be modified, after said termination date at the times and in the manner hereinabove provided for the extension of said Conditions and Restrictions in force at the time of such extension or modification."

The procedure for amending a DoR was set forth in paragraph 28 of each DoR: "Subject to the provisions of paragraph[s] 16 and 27², the provisions of these restrictions, other than this paragraph, may be amended by an instrument in writing signed and acknowledged by record owners of at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the units located on the real property, which amendment shall be effective upon recordation in the Office of the Recorder of San Diego County, California."

In 1986, in response to a change in the law in California, the Architectural Committee for each of the seven Units recorded amendments to the DoR's increasing the minimum age of residents from 45 to 55. Each amendment was signed by one or more individuals. The signatures appeared below a paragraph in each document that reads as follows: "We, the undersigned[,] comprising all of the members of the Costa Serena Architectural Committee, the unincorporated Association named in the Declaration to enforce the provisions thereof, hereby certify and declare that the foregoing provisions related to use and occupancy of living units in Costa Serena Unit No. [respective Unit number], are the provisions applicable to and enforceable and enforced with respect to the above-described property."

In 1987, an amendment was recorded that, by its terms, applied to all seven DoR's (the 1987 Amendment). The amendment made three significant changes to the original DoR's. First, the 1987 Amendment combined all seven Units into a single community that would be subject to a single governing document, the UDoR. The 1987 Amendment identified the DoR that had been previously...