Real Property – Restrictive Covenants – Termination by Declaratory Judgment

Appellant originally owned all of a certain tract of land upon which his home was built. In 1942 he conveyed one lot to the predecessor in title of the appellees, including in the deed a covenant restricting the lot to residential uses. Subsequently he conveyed three other lots carved from the original tract without inserting restrictive covenants in the deeds. The appellees brought suit for a declaratory judgment invalidating the restrictive covenant on their lot, and such judgment was granted. While an appeal from this decree was pending, appellant sold his home to a rural electric co-operative for admittedly commercial uses, but he retained a portion of the original tract. Held, affirmed. The right to enforce the covenant is lost by abandonment, waiver, and by a change in the character of the neighborhood which renders its enforcement no longer practicable. Bagby v. Stewart’s Executors, (Ky. 1954) 265 S.W. (2d) 75.