## Facts

- A 1964 “Accessory Parking Covenant” granted owners of nearby Carrollsburg Square townhouses the right to use parking spaces in an underground garage located in an adjoining condominium building.
- The covenant arose from a zoning arrangement in which the parking rights functioned as consideration for a zoning exception.
- In earlier litigation interpreting the same covenant, the court held the townhouse owners’ garage parking rights were granted without additional charges.
- For decades, townhouse owners accessed the garage through the condominium’s interior lobbies and elevators, not solely via an exterior ramp.
- The condominium unit owners association later adopted a resolution imposing a “garage-maintenance fee” on the townhouse owners for garage upkeep.
- After the townhouse owners refused to pay, the association barred them from using the interior route and required use of an exterior ramp.
- The townhouse owners sued, challenging both the fee and the change in access.
- The trial court permanently enjoined the association from charging the fee and ordered restoration of interior access; the association appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the 1964 parking covenant, as previously construed, barred the condominium association from charging townhouse owners a garage “maintenance fee” tied to their easement parking rights.
2. Whether claim preclusion (res judicata) foreclosed the association’s attempt to impose a fee concerning rights previously litigated under the same covenant.
3. Whether the association could unilaterally relocate or materially alter the townhouse owners’ established access route to the garage from interior lobbies/elevators to an exterior ramp.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the trial court’s judgment and permanent injunction.
- The association was prohibited from imposing the garage-maintenance fee (or other charges) on the townhouse owners for exercising the parking easement.
- The association was required to restore and permit the townhouse owners’ interior access through the condominium’s lobbies and elevators.
- The court held that res judicata barred renewed litigation over charging for the parking rights under the same covenant.
- The court held the long-used, acquiesced-in interior access was part of the easement’s fixed location/manner and could not be unilaterally relocated by the servient estate.

## Legal Principles

- A covenant-created parking easement granted as part of a zoning-related exchange may not be subjected to later fees that function as additional compensation for the same right, absent authorization in the instrument.
- Claim preclusion bars relitigation of disputes arising from the same transaction and instrument, including matters that were raised or could have been raised in earlier litigation.
- An easement includes the right of access necessary to enjoy the easement; where a particular route and manner of access is long used with acquiescence, the servient owner generally may not unilaterally relocate or materially alter it without the dominant owner’s consent (absent express authority).

## Conclusion

The court held the condominium association could neither charge townhouse owners a garage-maintenance fee tied to a parking easement previously determined to be fully compensated, nor unilaterally shift long-established interior access to an exterior route, and it affirmed injunctive relief enforcing both rulings.


Carrollsburg Condo. Unit Owners Ass’n v. Anderson, 791 A.2d 54 (D.C. 2002)