Pfister v. Madison Beach Hotel, LLC

Summary

The court affirmed the Appellate Court’s reversal of a permanent injunction barring a hotel from sponsoring free outdoor concerts in an adjacent public park. It held that the trial court applied an incorrect legal framework by treating the park as an extension of the hotel property, that the park’s grandfathered use encompassed concerts without proof that concerts had occurred there before the regulatory change, and that the hotel’s commercial motives did not alter the permitted use of the land. The court concluded that the injunction could not stand because the trial court’s findings rested on a misapprehension of the law.