Landowners in rural residential subdivision brought action against neighbor and property owners improvement and service district, alleging violations of protective covenants and illegal imposition of property tax levies, and neighbor and district filed counterclaim alleging that landowners violated protective covenants.
The District Court granted summary judgment for district and, after a bench trial, entered judgment for neighbor on claim against him. Landowners appealed.
The Supreme Court held that:
- District’s authority to levy taxes was not limited to eight mills as outlined in petition to form district;
- Protective covenant requiring buck and pole fencing applied to subdivision’s perimeter fence on landowners’ property;
- District’s alternative argument as to inequities in enforcing covenant as to fencing was best left for a first determination on remand; and
- Neighbor’s performance of road maintenance and snowplowing for subdivision did not violate covenant prohibiting commercial activity.
Authority of property owners improvement and service district, as a political subdivision of state, to levy taxes in rural residential subdivision in county was not limited to eight mills as outlined in petition to form district, where Improvement and Service District Act did not impose a mill levy or other cap on a district’s authority to tax, Act specifically allowed a district to change amount or rate it charged for use of improvements and services it provided, and landowners were on notice that any district that was formed would have authority to collect revenue and to “change the amount or rate thereof.