Hill v. Community Of Damien Of Molokai

121 N.M. 353, 911 P.2d 861 (1996)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Community (D) is a private corporation that provides homes for people with AIDS as well as other terminal illnesses. D leased 716 Rio Arriba, S.E. Albuquerque in the Four Hills Village, a planned subdivision, for use as a group home. The home was to be for four individuals with AIDS, and each was unrelated, but each required the same degree of in home nursing care. Hill and others (P) lived on the same dead-end-street and almost immediately noticed the amount of traffic to and from the home had increased tremendously. P objected to the group home use as it violated restrictive covenants applicable to all homes in the sixteenth installment of Four Hills Village. P sued to enjoin the use of the house as a group home. They claimed that the term single-family residence does not include group homes in which unrelated people live together. The trial court ruled that the covenant prevented use as a group home. D appealed; a group home is a permitted use under the covenant and enforcing the covenant would violate FHA rules and regulations.