APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

This is an appeal by petitioner/appellant, Lue Ann Smith, from an order of the Franklin County Circuit Court quashing her writ of certiorari. The writ suspended the decisions of respondent/appellee, the Winchester City Council (“the Council”), allowing intervening petitioner, Karl Smith, permission and denying Appellant permission to sell fire works within the City of Winchester. The facts out of which this matter arose are as follows.

This appeal involves the enforcement of a 47-year-old restrictive covenant in a residential subdivision in Tullahoma. After a physician converted one of the homes in the subdivision into a medical clinic, a group of property owners filed suit in the Chancery Court for Coffee County seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to enforce a restrictive covenant requiring the property in the subdivision to be used for residential purposes. The trial court, sitting without a jury, determined that the restrictive covenant remained enforceable, directed the physician to remove an illuminated exterior sign, and awarded attorney’s fees to the property owners. On this appeal,  the physician takes issue with the enforcement of the restrictive covenant and with the award of attorney’s fees. While we affirm the enforcement of the restrictive covenant, we reverse the award of attorney’s fees.