{"id":914,"date":"2026-10-11T15:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/?p=914"},"modified":"2026-10-11T15:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:20:39","slug":"covenant-prohibiting-nightclub-is-reasonable-not-against-public-policy-and-enforceable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/2026\/10\/11\/covenant-prohibiting-nightclub-is-reasonable-not-against-public-policy-and-enforceable\/","title":{"rendered":"Covenant prohibiting nightclub is reasonable, not against public policy, and enforceable."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has rejected a claim that a real covenant prohibiting operation of a nightclub was unreasonable or against public policy. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dccourts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2026-02\/DTLD%20et%20al.%20v.%20Power%20Station%20LP%20et%20al.%20(24-CV-1163+).pdf\" class=\"mtli_attachment mtli_pdf\">DTLD, LLC v. Power Station Ltd. P\u2019ship,<\/a> 350 A.3d 1285 (D.C. 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court explained its position that covenants are \u201cdisfavored\u201d as \u201crestrictions on the free use of property.\u201d <em>Id.<\/em> at 1290. At the same time, they \u201cgive rise to reasonable expectations.\u201d <em>Id.<\/em> Despite the conclusion of a city agency that a nightclub could be operated safely without any \u201cundue impact\u201d on the neighboring properties, the test for finding a covenant to be unreasonable requires courts to defer to the wishes of the covenant creators unless the covenant is irrational or causes harm to the public and neither was the case here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has rejected a claim that a real covenant prohibiting operation of a nightclub was unreasonable or against public policy. DTLD, LLC v. Power Station Ltd. P\u2019ship, 350 A.3d 1285 (D.C. 2026). The court explained its position that covenants are \u201cdisfavored\u201d as \u201crestrictions on the free use of property.\u201d Id. at 1290. At the same time, they \u201cgive rise to reasonable expectations.\u201d Id. Despite the conclusion of a city agency that a nightclub could be operated safely without any \u201cundue impact\u201d on the neighboring properties, the test for finding a covenant to be unreasonable requires courts to defer to the wishes of the covenant creators unless the covenant is irrational or causes harm to the public and neither was the case here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-servitudes"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"jsinger","author_link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/author\/jsinger\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}