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Jones v. Lake Hickory R.V. Resort2/17/2004
e details of the manner in which the Lessee Association accomplished its purpose of arranging social functions for the Resort's campers.
The Resort's rules provided for the existence of the Lessee Association and specified that the Association's officers had to be long-term lessees. The evidence also established, however, that the officers were nominated and elected by the lessees, the Resort played no role in the selection of the members of the Lessee Association, and no one from the Resort's management was allowed to be a member of the Association. The Lessee Association was self-sustaining financially; it raised money from bingo and other activities.
With respect to how the Lessee Association operated, the Resort's rules provided generally:
The Association will work in conjunction with management to provide activities, socials, entertainment, etc. for the enjoyment and use of all. . . .
. . . All functions and activities shall be correlated and reviewed by management. The Association will remain viable only as long as majority of lessees wish for it to do so, and the Association works in harmony with management and residents of Lake Hickory R.V. Resort.
More specifically, the undisputed evidence indicated that the Lessee Association would meet regularly, discuss possible activities, and then vote on those activities. The Lessee Association would submit a list of the activities to the Resort, which would review those activities and, if approved, advertise them in a newsletter distributed to the campers. The evidence is in dispute whether the Resort's review was limited to scheduling or whether the Resort could veto activities for reasons unrelated to scheduling.
As for the conduct of the activities themselves, the record contains no evidence suggesting that the Resort exercised any control over how the Lessee Association conducted the approved activities. Plaintiff's witness, the wife of the former Assistant Manager and a former employee of the Resort, testified: "The [Lessee Association's] committee members were the ones to control what was done, how it was done, and they had the right to tell someone they could not do something if they thought that it was an endangerment." With respect to the Fourth of July parade, the evidence was undisputed that the Resort did not participate in arranging for the parade or in overseeing the conduct of the parade.
The above evidence does not establish any right of the Resort to control the details of how the Lessee Association accomplished its work in arranging and conducting social activities for campers. A general authority to veto activities does not establish control over the details of the Lessee Association's work. That authority is consistent with a landlord's right to limit how its tenants use the common areas over which the landlord has retained control. Nor are the requirements that the Lessee Association work in conjunction and harmony with the Resort sufficient to establish the degree of control required for an agency relationship. Such a general requirement of cooperation is comparable to other general rules that this Court has found insufficient to support a finding of agency. See Hylton, 138 N.C. App. at 636-37, 532 S.E.2d at 257-58 (rules imposed by hospital on doctors were "general in nature" not addressing the details of the doctors' daily work and did not create agency relationship); Miller v. Piedmont Steam Co., 137 N.C. App. 520, 525, 528 S.E.2d 923, 926-27 (2000) (franchise agreement's detailed standards were adopted to ensure quality service and "did not rise to the level of daily control" over the franchisee's operations); Hayman v. Ramada Inn, Inc., 86 N.C. App.
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