Latest Case: Brown v. Compass Harbor Village Condominium Ass'n (Contracts)

How Allen v. Cooper Breaks Important New (if Dubious) Ground on Stare Decisis

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on language in a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Allen v. Cooperdiscussing constitutional stare decisis in the context of state sovereign immunity. Amar points out some of the problems with the Court’s jurisprudence on state sovereign immunity and Congress’s Section 5 power, and he questions the Allen majority’s embrace of a “special justification” requirement for constitutional stare decisis.

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Brown v. Compass Harbor Village Condominium Ass'n

Citation: 2020 ME 44

Opinion Date: April 9, 2020

Judge: Horton

Areas of Law: Contracts, Real Estate & Property Law

The Supreme Judicial Court vacated in part and affirmed in part the lower court's judgment in favor of Plaintiffs and against Compass Harbor Village Condominium Association and Compass Harbor Village, LLC (collectively, Compass Harbor), holding that the court erred in ordering specific performance and entering judgment for Plaintiffs on the claim brought pursuant to the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act (UTPA), Me. Rev. Stat. 5, 205-A to 2014. Plaintiffs brought suit alleging that Compass Harbor's actions with respect to maintenance and governance of the Association caused their units to lose value. The lower court found that Compass Harbor breached the contracts between it and Plaintiffs, the LLC violated its fiduciary duties to Plaintiffs, and Compass Harbor violated section 207 of the UTPA. The court awarded damages to Plaintiffs and entered an order of specific performance requiring Compass Harbor to abide by its contractual and fiduciary duties in the future. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment in part, holding (1) the UTPA did not apply in this case; (2) the court did not clearly err in calculating damages; and (3) the court went beyond its discretion in entering an order that would involve the court in continuous supervision of Compass Harbor's performance over an indefinite period.