Wagner v. Woodward
Annotate this CaseThe Wagners owned property along a river, which was subject to restrictive covenants. Brian Woodward purchased adjacent property that was subject to the same covenants. Woodward later added onto the deck of the home he purchased and built a split-rail fence along his east and west property lines. The Wagners sued, claiming Woodward's additions violated the restrictive covenants. The district court determined (1) the fences did not violate the covenants, but (2) the deck addition violated the covenants. The court ordered Woodward to remove the deck addition. The Supreme Court reversed in part and vacated the district court's order requiring Woodward to remove the deck addition from his home, holding (1) any violation of the covenant by the deck addition was de minimus, and (2) given Woodward's detrimental reliance of the Wagners' failure to timely enforce the covenants as they pertained to his home and the absolute absence of damages to the Wagners, it would be inequitable to compel removal of the deck addition.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.