Citizens Suburban Co. v. Rosemont Development Co.

Plaintiff, a water company, seeks specific performance of a service agreement under which it claims the exclusive right to furnish water to the successive “units" of a subdivision development. The subdividers appeal from an adverse judgment.

The Rosemont subdivision is situated in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County just south of Highway 50. Owner of the land was Wunderlich Development Company. Two individuals, A. J. Stern and Richard Price, undertook to develop a residential subdivision in the area. The entire Rosemont tract consisted of approximately 400 acres and the sub-dividers intended to develop it, unit by unit, to accommodate some 1,600 dwellings, plus a shopping center and apartment house area. Stern and Price operated through a number of partnerships and corporations. In October 1954 one of their firms, United Land Developers, bought from the Wunderlich concern a portion of the tract consisting of 52 acres, later to be known as Rosemont Unit No. 1. When Unit 1 was ready for construction, Stern and Price undertook its development through a limited partnership called Rosemont Development Co. Two corporations were general partners in the firm, while nine…