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Date: 05-04-2023
Case Style:
Case Number: 170904219
Judge: Third District Court, Salt Lake County
Court: Richard E. Mrazik
Plaintiff's Attorney:
Defendant's Attorney:
Description: Salt Lake City, Utah condominium law lawyers represented Plaintiff and Defendant in an assessment dispute.
¶1 The Hi-Country Estates Homeowners Association (HOA) sued Mountaintop Properties, L.L.C., an owner of a lot within its boundaries, for unpaid assessments. And the district court granted summary judgment in the HOA's favor. This appeal presents the question of whether the HOA has authority to levy such assessments, despite alleged defects in the HOA's founding documents. Mountaintop contends that the person who formed the HOA and signed its governing documents approximately fifty years ago did not actually own most of the land he included within the HOA's boundaries-including the lot at issue here. It argues that this renders the HOA's governing documents, and consequently the HOA's authority, absolutely void and incapable of ratification.
¶2 The same question is presented in a related case that we resolve today, Hi-Country Estates Homeowners Ass'n, Phase II v. Frank, 2023 UT 7, __ P.3d __, in which the HOA sued to collect unpaid assessments it had levied on two other lots. In both cases, we conclude that the HOA does have authority to assess the lots at issue because the HOA's members have ratified its authority over time.
Outcome: Affirmed.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: