SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
DOCKET NO. A-2796-00T2
BRADLEY B. DAVIS,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
METUCHEN GARDENS
CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION
Defendants-Respondents,
and
AMHERST REALTY &
MANAGEMENT, INC.
Defendant.
Submitted: December 18, 2001 Decided:
February 5, 2002
Before Judges Wefing, Lesemann and Landau.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New
Jersey, Law Division, Special Civil Part,
Middlesex County, Docket No. SC-2420-00.
Bradley B. Davis, appellant, pro se.
Hutt & Shimanowitz, attorneys for respondent
Metuchen Gardens Condominium Association,
David M. Hutt, of counsel; Mr. Hutt and
Christopher M. Puzzele, on the brief).
The opinion of the court was delivered by
WEFING, J.A.D.
Plaintiff Bradley B. Davis appeals from a judgment entered in
favor of defendant Metuchen Gardens Condominium Association
(Association). After reviewing the record in light of the
contentions advanced on appeal, we affirm.
Metuchen Gardens is a sixty-four-unit residential condominium
located in Metuchen, New Jersey. Defendant Association is the
governing body for the complex. The buildings are two stories in
height. Thirty-one of the second-story units have balconies.
Plaintiff Davis resides in a ground-floor unit, which, rather than
a balcony, has a concrete patio. Under the terms of the
condominium's master deed, both the balconies and patios are
considered "limited common elements."
Certain of the unit owners apparently did not properly
maintain the balconies adjoining their units and structural
problems developed. The Association retained the services of an
engineer to inspect all the balconies within the complex. The
engineering study concluded that sixteen of the thirty-one
balconies represented safety hazards due to the rot and decay
discovered in the course of the survey.
The Association decided that all of the balconies should be
replaced and further, that the new balconies should be supported by
wooden support posts sunk into concrete footings. The Association
further decided that the cost of this work should be divided
equally among all the unit-owners, not just those whose units
included a balcony. The Association assessed each unit owner a
total of $1,440, payable in monthly installments of $60.
Davis made three payments under protest, and then began this
action in which he sought a refund of that money. He asserted the
cost should be assessed solely against those unit owners whose
units included balconies. The trial court found in favor of the
Association and dismissed his complaint.
The rights and responsibilities of a condominium unit owner
and a governing association are controlled both by statute,
N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 to -38, and the particular master deed and bylaws
in effect. We have, in other matters, recognized that in light of
the relatively recent wide-spread popularity of such developments,
the law in this area is still evolving. Mulligan v. Panther Valley
Property Owners Assoc.,
337 N.J. Super. 293, 301 (2001).
N.J.S.A. 46:8B-3k defines limited common elements as "those
common elements which are for the use of one or more specified
units to the exclusion of other units." Paragraph E(3) of the
Master Deed for Metuchen Gardens provides, in pertinent part:
The Limited Common Elements shall include, but
shall not be limited to, entryways, common
walls, balconies, patios or deck (sic) front
entrance areas or porches, designated as
appurtenant to a specified Unit. Each Unit
owner shall be responsible for maintaining at
their individual cost and expense, all areas
designated as Limited Common Elements except,
however, structural modifications and
structural maintenance of the walls.
Further, the Master Deed includes the following term in its
"Declaration of Restrictive and Protective Covenants, Agreements
and Easement Grants":
That the owner of each Unit is bound to
contribute according to the percentage of his
undivided interest in the Common Elements as
set forth in the Master Deed toward the
expenses of administration and of maintenance,
repairs of the Common Elements, which includes
snow removal, utility charges, solid waste
removal, maintenance of streets, sewers,
sidewalks, curbs, etc., the expenses of
administering and maintaining Metuchen Gardens
Condominium Association and all of its real
and personal property in such amounts as shall
from time to time be fixed by the Association,
including reserves for deferred maintenance
(maintenance items that occur less frequently
than annually[)], reserves for replacement and
reserves for capital improvements, and to any
expenses that shall be lawfully agreed upon.
Corresponding provisions are found in the Association's by-
laws. In addition, under the bylaws, an individual unit owner is
barred from "contract[ing] for or perform[ing] any maintenance,
repair, replacement, alteration or modification of the common
elements" and agrees to reimburse the Association for expenses it
incurs "in repairing or replacing any part of parts of the Common
Elements damaged solely by his negligence. . . ."
Finally, before turning to the particular question presented,
we note that our review is somewhat hampered by the informal manner
in which the matter proceeded below. Both parties refer to the
matter having been tried before the court. However, the transcript
that has been supplied to us contains no testimony; it appears that
the court decided the matter having heard oral argument and
reviewed the documents. Neither party, however, complained of the
procedure utilized. Rather, they agreed that the question to be
decided was whether replacement of these decks was a "structural
modification" such that under Paragraph E(3) of the Master Deed, it
was not the responsibility of an individual unit owner.
After listening to the parties, the trial court concluded that
the work performed was, indeed, a structural modification, and thus
within the purview of the Association's responsibility and,
accordingly, dismissed plaintiff's complaint.
We agree with the trial court's interpretation of the master
deed. In our view, if the term "structural modification" were
limited to walls, as plaintiff contends, it would have read
"structural modification or maintenance of the walls." The
repetition of the word "structural" in each clause indicates to us
two separate, independent provisions.
Plaintiff challenges the soundness of a policy which spreads
the cost of replacement among all unit owners, rather than
confining it to those immediately benefitted. We decline to
interfere with that policy judgment. Because of the sparseness of
the record, to which we have earlier referred, it is not possible
to determine whether the decisions at issue should be judged under
the reasonableness test or the business judgment rule. Mulligan,
supra, 337 N.J. Super. at 302-03. No matter which test we were to
employ, we could not find a basis to judicially overturn the result
here.
No party has addressed the significance of the provision in
the bylaws set forth above which authorizes the Association to seek
reimbursement from a unit owner if the Association is forced to
incur expenses to replace common elements as a result of negligence
on the part of that unit owner. We express no opinion whether the
Association, in the present instance, would have a viable claim
against certain of the unit owners in this condominium development.
The judgment under review is affirmed.