Bremmeyer Excavating, Inc. v. McKenna
Washington Court of Appeals
38 P.3d 1026 (Wash. Ct. App. 2002)
Gerald Parks hired Bremmeyer Excavating (plaintiff) under a contract giving it exclusive rights to perform filling work on his property for five years. During that period, John McKenna (defendant) bought the property from Parks and hired a different company to do the filling work. Bremmeyer sued McKenna for breach of contract, arguing its agreement with Parks ran with the land and bound McKenna as the new owner; the trial court ruled the contract did not bind McKenna, and Bremmeyer appealed.
Whether horizontal privity of estate exists, as required for a covenant to run with the land, only if the covenant's interest passes together with an estate in land or relates to coexisting or common property interests between the original contracting parties.