Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ascension v. Sahlem

Cardozo, Ch. J.

The plaintiff, a religious corporation, has sued the owner of a parcel of real property in the village of Snyder, the owner’s wife being joined with him as a defendant, to procure a declaratory judgment adjudging that restrictive covenants affecting the use of a parcel belonging to the plaintiff are no longer in effect, with a prayer for general relief.

The Supreme Court at Special Term refused to declare that the covenants had spent their force, adjudged, on the contrary, that they were valid and subsisting, but coupled that adjudication with one to the effect that the…