Goodsell v. Eagle-Air Estates Homeowners Assn.

Where homeowners association bylaws and statutory removal provisions are nonexclusive and Oregon law supplements them without contradiction, an action to remove defendant directors of the association may be rejected.

As part of long-running litigation between members of a small planned community, Goodsell appealed from dismissal of its action seeking judicial removal of the defendant directors of Eagle-Air Estates Homeowners Association (EEHA), and EEHA cross appealed from the trial court's denial of their request for attorney fees. In moving to dismiss, EEHA had argued, and the trial court agreed, that Goodsell's legal contention conflicted with EEHA's bylaw provision pertaining to removal of directors, as well as with provisions of Oregon law. The Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court erred; the bylaw and statutory removal provisions to which EEHA and the trial court referred were nonexclusive and Oregon law supplemented, without contradiction, those provisions. Reversed and remanded. Cross-appeal dismissed as moot.