Hall v. Butte Home Health
California Court of Appeal for the Third District
60 Cal. App. 4th 308 (1997)
Butte Home Health (defendant) began operating a residential care facility for elderly disabled individuals in a subdivision subject to 1960 restrictive covenants limiting the area to single-family residences and barring multi-family or commercial uses. Hall (plaintiff) sued to enforce the covenants, and the trial court agreed the facility violated them, ruling that a 1993 state law barring covenants that discriminate based on disability did not apply retroactively to the older 1960 covenants. Butte appealed.
Whether a restrictive covenant on real property may be enforced when doing so would violate a subsequently enacted state law prohibiting discrimination against disabled persons through land-use restrictions.