SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
A-7039-97T2
A-7042-97T2
YEHUDA AMIR,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
PHILIP AND VIOLET D'AGOSTINO-
UNITS R
25 AND 26, BRENDA
GOLDSTEIN, and OCEAN CLUB
CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION,
Defendants-Respondents,
and
ALBERT GARDNER, CHIEF OFFICER
OF THE GENERAL PARTNER OF MLM
ASSOCIATES, a New Jersey
Limited Partnership,
Defendant-Appellant.
Submitted January 5, 2000 - Decided January 26, 2000
Before Judges Stern, Wefing and Steinberg.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New
Jersey, Chancery Division, Atlantic County,
whose opinion is reported at __ N.J. Super. __
(Ch. Div. 1998).
Valore and Associates, attorneys for appellant
Yehuda Amir (Mark W. Rinkus, on the brief).
Weiner & Gall, attorneys for appellant Albert
Gardner (Fredric L. Shenkman, on the brief).
Hankin, Sandson, Sandman, Bradley & Palladino,
attorneys for respondents Philip and Violet
D'Agostino (John F. Palladino, on the joint
brief).
Dilworth Paxson, attorneys for respondent Ocean
Club Condominium Association (Marianne E. Brown,
on the joint brief).
Mairone, Biel, Zlotnick & Feinberg, attorneys
for respondent Brenda Goldstein (Norman L.
Zlotnick, on the joint brief).
PER CURIAM
Plaintiff Yehuda Amir is the owner of two of the twenty-nine
commercial units at the Ocean Club Condominium in Atlantic City.
He claims "to have an exclusive right to sell certain
merchandise" in the condominium complex. Amir appeals from an
order entered on June 19, 1998, granting summary judgment in
favor of defendants, and declaring "that all covenants contained
in the individual unit Deeds to Units R25 and R26 in the Ocean
Club Condominium which purport to restrict, prohibit or in any
other way limit the owners, successors and/or assigns of said
units right to conduct the business of its choice therein, be and
are hereby stricken[.]" The order further "strikes" "any
covenants in any of the individual unit deeds in any of the
commercial units of the Ocean Club Condominiums which purport to
restrict, prohibit or in any other way limit the owners,
successors and/or assigns of Unit R-25 and R-26 from conducting
the business of their choice in said units."
On his appeal, plaintiff Amir contends that the trial court
erred in granting summary judgment because "restrictions and
covenants contained in individual condominium units' deeds are
enforceable," even if "they were not included in the
condominium's master deed," and that the trial judge "erred by
concluding" that plaintiff lacked standing to assert his
contentions and in granting summary judgment.
Defendant Albert Gardner, the chief officer of MLM
Associates, the condominium developer, also appeals from the same
judgment. He argues that "the unit deed restrictions are valid
and enforceable" even though not set forth in the master deed or
public offering statement, that MLM has standing to enforce them,
and that the restrictions are "sufficiently clear to be
enforceable."
We affirm the order granting summary judgment substantially
for the reasons expressed by Judge L. Anthony Gibson in his
opinion of August 12, 1998,See footnote 11 reported at __ N.J. Super. __, with
the following caveat.
The trial judge concluded that plaintiff did not have
standing because "the negative restrictions Amir seeks to enforce
involve prohibitions on sales that are contained in the
D'Agostino deed" and those restrictions in the individual deed
are only for the "benefit of the Sellers, its successors and
assigns." __ N.J. Super. at __ (slip op. at 12). The
D'Agostinos acquired unit R-26 from the Fernicolas, and the
D'Agostinos thereafter rented that unit to Brenda Goldstein who
is selling the women's clothing from which plaintiff believes he
is entitled to protection. The judge believed that as the
Fernicolas were the sellers, only they and their successors in
title would be entitled to enforce the covenant.
On the other hand, the condominium developer is also seeking
to enforce the restrictions. It "still retains at least one
unit" in the condominium complex and "asserts that it intended to
and did, in fact, create a neighborhood scheme via the
restrictions and covenants incorporated in the individual unit
deeds to the commercial units." The endeavor by MLM to enforce a
scheme of restrictions it created in individual deeds may avoid
plaintiff's need to show standing because the Fernicolas acquired
their unit, subject to the restrictions, from the developer,
although plaintiff is not in the chain of title of the Fernicolas
(or defendants D'Agostino from whom defendant Goldstein leased
her unit). Plaintiff is, of course, in a separate chain of title
of the same developer who joins plaintiff in asserting that a
"neighborhood scheme" was created for the protection of owners
like plaintiff, through restrictions placed in the individual
unit deeds.
Because we agree with Judge Gibson that the restrictions, on
the specific use of the commercial units, must be "placed within
the master deed [or an amended master deed], at least when
created by the developer," __ N.J. Super. at __ (slip op. at 19),
we find it unnecessary to pass upon the standing issue.
Affirmed.
Footnote: 1 1The August 12, 1998 opinion made some minor typographical