There can be real consequences if a community association and its manager overlook areas of the community that are in need of maintenance, as required either by the community association’s own covenants or by the local code of ordinances. Recently, the failure of a community association and its management company to properly maintain the association’s hedges led to a $12 million damage award. The story was the subject of an October 8th, Palm Beach Post article by Staff Writer Jane Musgrave.
Based upon a 2013 verdict by a Palm Beach County jury, a Town of Jupiter condominium association was found negligent for failing to properly trim its hedges contributing to the death of a 9 year old boy. As a result, the boy’s parents were awarded $12 million by jurors. As reported, the hedges located at the entrance to the condominium community were approximately 56 inches in height. However, the Code of Ordinances for the Town of Jupiter required that such hedges be no taller than 30 inches in height. Therefore, the hedges of this condominium association were nearly twice the height permitted by local code. In addition to the height of the hedges, a stop sign, which stood 37 inches tall, was nearly four feet shorter than the height required by the Florida Department of Transportation. The height of the hedges and the height of the stop sign together became a “fatal obstruction,” the parent’s attorney told jurors during the trial, as report by Ms. Musgraves. As to the fatal incident, Ms. Musgraves report that:
The youth, who was riding bicycles on the sidewalk with his father, Andre Kovacs, was killed when an elderly condo resident, who couldn’t see over the hedges, plowed into him as she was driving out of the complex on U.S. 1 just south of Indiantown Road in 2011.
After the verdict of the trial court finding in favor of the boy’s parents was upheld by Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, the jury found that the condominium association was 30 percent responsible, that the community association management was 60 percent responsible, and that the driver of the vehicle which struck the boy was 10 percent responsible for the death of the boy. While the parents settled with the driver for $100,000, the limits of the driver’s insurance policy, as reported by Ms. Musgraves, the parents may receive a total of $12.5 million in damages from the condominium association and its management. Sadly, the death of this young boy and the devastating financial hit to the condominium association’s owners and the condominium association’s manager could have been avoided.
Because the jury found the association’s management more responsible for the accident than the association, itself, this case may be quite troubling for management companies. Clearly, if the manager suggests action based on the community’s declaration or the local code of ordinances and the board ignores such advice, a record should be kept by management. In addition, board members need to understand and recognize their duty to ensure that their association complies with both its maintenance and repair obligations set out in the association’s declaration and the local code of ordinaces, too.
To read Ms. Musgrave’s October 7, 2015 Palm Beach Post article, titled Parents to get $12M verdict in son’s 2011 bicycle death in Jupiter, in its entirety please visit http://bit.ly/1hstP8K.