A Truck by Any Other Name . . . : Homeowners’ Board Told to Go to Blazers
A property owner beat his homeowners association’s distaste for trucks Thursday, winning the right from a state appellate court to park a Chevrolet Blazer in front of his house--even though he doesn’t own one.
The clearcut winner in the case was John Edmondson, whose rental house at 2028 Woodbriar Court in Fullerton once was occupied by a tenant with--you guessed it--a Blazer.
The tenant moved out some time ago, along with her Blazer. But the lawsuit that was filed over the homeowners association’s insistence on keeping the vehicle off neighborhood streets is still around.
Thursday, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled in that lawsuit that the association’s board of directors was unreasonable in trying to keep the Blazer--a 1985 S-10 model--off the neighborhood streets, even though association rules dating from 1965 clearly prohibit on-street truck parking.
The opinion, released Thursday, upholds an earlier Superior Court decision on the basic issue of the case, but it also gives Edmondson the secondary victory he was looking for when he filed his appeal: The justices ordered the association to pay Edmondson’s attorney fees, which could exceed $6,000.
The Blazer is a vehicle that is “in keeping with the residential character of the neighborhood” and therefore is not banned by the neighborhood rules, known as CC&Rs;, or covenants, conditions and restrictions, the appellate court said. The opinion was written by Superior Court Judge Gary L. Taylor, sitting on the appellate court by special appointment.
“This is an attractive, modern vehicle,” said G. Thomas Leonard, Edmondson’s lawyer. “Times have changed since CC&Rs; were enacted and ‘truck’ meant something bearing commercial loads.”
David Long, lawyer for the Fullerton Creek Community Assn., says the case involves more than a dispute over vehicles.
He argues that the court lacks the power to substitute its judgment for that of the board of directors.
“The court says the board was too restrictive in its interpretation of the word truck,” Long said. “The manufacturer of this vehicle says it’s a truck. Our auto design expert says it’s a truck.”
CC&Rs; are rules familiar to many Southern California homeowners. Directors of a homeowners association are unpaid volunteers who have the responsibility of enforcing the rules laid down when the homes covered by the association first were sold.
In the Fullerton development, one rule requires that “no mobile home, boat, truck or trailer of any kind” be parked within sight of any home.
The directors assessed $360 in fines against Edmondson when his tenant, Viola Smithers, parked the Blazer on the street.
Edmondson protested, arguing that the Blazer was used exclusively for personal transportation and was not the sort of truck that would be banned under the CC&Rs.;
But the directors wouldn’t budge. Edmondson filed a lawsuit in September, 1985, in Orange County Superior Court, and last year Judge John C. Woolley ruled in favor of the Blazer.
Both sides appealed, Edmondson because Woolley refused his demand that the association pay his attorney’s fees.
Leonard said it was “a fun case all the way” because “I felt I was on the right side.”
“Common sense (tells you)) it’s a truck, but not in terms of the enforcement of the CC&Rs;,” Leonard said. “General Motors calls it one tough truck, but that’s not what matters. What matters is how the vehicle is used and what it looks like.”
The Blazer was clean, well kept up, carried no commercial advertising, was registered as a station wagon and was used exclusively as a passenger vehicle. There was no reason to ban it, Leonard argued.
Long said a further appeal is under consideration.
Edmondson’s new tenant does not own a truck, Leonard said.
