Ronnoco Properties of Pleasanton v. Crossroads CEIC Partners CA1/1

BACKGROUND

Ronnoco filed suit against Crossroads in March 2010, asserting a claim for breach of contract and seeking a declaration of the rights of the parties and an accounting. The complaint alleged that Crossroads, which is in charge of maintaining the common area of a commercial development in which Ronnoco holds property, had breached the CC&R’s

1 by failing to pay for trash collection and to clean the common areas. The matter proceeded to a bench trial in October 2011. The Crossroads at Hacienda (Hacienda) is a commercial development of seven parcels of real property in Pleasanton. Six of the parcels consist of buildings and the land directly underneath the building footprint; the seventh is the remainder of the lot, referred to as the “common area” and consisting largely of walkways and the parking lots. Ronnoco owns one of the building parcels, and Crossroads owns two of them. The remainder is owned by nonparties. The common area is owned jointly by the owners of the building parcels as tenants in common. Hacienda is subject to a set of CC&R’s, and Crossroads is the “declarant” under the CC&R’s. The CC&R’s required Crossroads, as the declarant, to “operate and maintain”…