RV Resort & Yacht Club Owners Assn., Inc. v. BillyBob's Marina, Inc.

• Decision Date: 14 December 2007
• Docket Number: 2007-UP-556
• Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: RV Resort and Yacht Club Owners Association, Inc., Jean Littell, Kathy Fudge, Dwight Blakeslee, Herb Hook, Stan Bronson, Peg Bender, and Claudette Delpesco, on behalf of all members of the Association similarly situated Individually, Respondents, v. BillyBob's Marina, Inc., d/b/a Outdoor RV Resort and Yacht Club, Appellant.

RV Resort and Yacht Club Owners Association, Inc., Jean Littell, Kathy Fudge, Dwight Blakeslee, Herb Hook, Stan Bronson, Peg Bender, and Claudette Delpesco, on behalf of all members of the Association similarly situated Individually, Respondents,
v.
BillyBob's Marina, Inc., d/b/a Outdoor RV Resort and Yacht Club, Appellant.

No. 2007-UP-556

Court of Appeals of South Carolina

December 14, 2007

UNPUBLISHED

Heard November 6, 2007

Appeal From Beaufort County Thomas Kemmerlin, Special Referee

James B. Richardson, Jr., of Columbia, for Appellant.

John R. C. Bowen, of Hilton Head Island, for Respondents.

PER CURIAM

In this action to enforce covenants, BillyBob's Marina, Inc., d/b/a Outdoor RV Resort and Yacht Club (BillyBob), appeals the special referee's order awarding, inter alia, damages and attorney's fees to the RV Resort and Yacht Club Owners Association, Inc. (the Association).^[1] We affirm in part and reverse in part.

FACTS

Outdoor Resorts RV Resort and Yacht Club (the Development) is a recreational vehicle (RV) resort and marina located on Jenkins Island in Beaufort County. From the Development's inception in 1981, it has consisted of several separate areas. One of these areas is the Marina, which has 110 slips, a fuel dock, a launching ramp, a bath house, fuel storage facilities, an access road, a marina office, and several parking spaces. The Marina is a completely separate entity from the rest of the Development. Another area is the Resort, which includes 200 lots with parking pads for RVs (lots), swimming pools, tennis courts, a playground, a yacht club/clubhouse building, roads and open space, a maintenance area, and utilities, including a sewage treatment facility. Many of the lots were owned by individuals. A third area is a real estate and rental management business (Rental Office), which includes a building, check-in areas, and parking spaces. Outdoor Resort R.V. Resort and Yacht Club, a South Carolina General Partnership, developed the Resort and owned the Marina and Rental Office. In June 1981, the "Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions for Outdoor Resorts, R.V. Resort and Yacht Club and Provisions for the R.V. Resort and Yacht Club Owners' Association, Inc." (Covenants) were recorded.

The Covenants provide Developer has the exclusive right to rent lots belonging to the individual owners within the Resort when not occupied by the owner and his or her guest at the scheduled rate promulgated by Developer. The Covenants further provide Developer shall retain fifty percent "of rental collected on any Lot" and remit the remaining fifty percent to the lot owner. The definition section of the Covenants does not contain a definition relating to rent or rental.

Article VIII, Section 8.11 of the Covenants provides: "Other reasonable rules and regulations governing use and occupancy and which do not alter or are not in contravention of any of the foregoing provisions may be made and amended from time to time by the Association, without the prior written consent of the Developer . . .." From 1981 to 1999 the Developer rented lots, splitting the rental fee 50/50 with the owners and collecting an additional fee of $2.00 for the use of electricity. The Developer paid the electricity fee directly to the owner of the lot (electricity charge). In 1999, Dwight Blakeslee, as President of the Association, requested an increase in rental rates. First, Blakeslee requested Developer collect an additional $1.00 per night as a "road tax" to reserve for road resurfacing...