Rick v. West
Supreme Court of New York, Westchester County
228 N.Y.S.2d 195 (1962)
Relevant factsFree
Rick (plaintiff) subdivided his vacant land and recorded a covenant restricting it to single-family homes. West (defendant) bought a lot and built a single-family house there. When Rick struggled to sell the remaining lots, he tried in 1959 to sell the land to commercial developers instead; the city rezoned the area for commercial use, but West refused to release her covenant, blocking the sale. Rick sued, arguing the neighborhood's changed character made the covenant unenforceable.
IssueFree
Whether changes in the development of surrounding land are enough to override a landowner's right to enforce an existing restrictive covenant.