Michael W. Dendy and Dendy Investment Group, LLC v. James Ryan, Jim Durbin, Eric Newman, Todd Carroll, Gail Kappler…

Summary

The court affirmed an injunction requiring the defendants either to construct in accordance with approved plans or obtain approval for complete new plans, and otherwise to remove unapproved structures. It held that the relative-hardship defense was not waived because it was raised before trial without objection, but that laches was not preserved because it was first raised in a postjudgment motion. The court further held that the defendants' knowing and deliberate construction of materially different structures supported applying the clean-hands doctrine to bar the relative-hardship defense.