Seven Hills v. Stone Ridge

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 2362

Syllabus

Permanent injunction, statutory injunctive relief, R.C. 715.30, municipality, building code, community association, governing documents, plat, retroactive enforcement, Ohio Const., art. II, § 28, attorney fees, punitive damages, bad faith. Residential subdivision's maintenance association appealed judgment entry that granted a municipality permanent injunctive relief and ordered the Association to fix erosion to a stream bank located on the association's common elements. The court did not err in ordering the permanent injunction without finding clear and convincing evidence of irreparable harm to the City because R.C. 715.30 gives municipalities authority to enforce their building codes by seeking a permanent injunction. Association's failure to remedy erosion was a violation of the building code where the association agreed to maintain drainage systems in its governing documents, which were submitted to and approved by the City during the construction of the subdivision, and where the stream was relocated during construction of the subdivision. That current city ordinances were passed after construction of the subdivision did not make their application by the trial court unconstitutionally retroactive because prior city ordinances imposed similar maintenance requirements on the association, which the association had also accepted in its plat. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the city's motion for attorney fees where the city did not seek punitive damages, was not a condo owner or association under R.C. 5312.12, and did not demonstrate bad faith conduct by the association.