Court sides with Pahrump couple on mobile home issue

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that there is a distinction, both in law and in popular meaning, between manufactured home and a mobile home.

The court overturned the ruling of District Judge John Davis of Tonopah, who held that the term mobile home "unambiguously" includes a manufactured home.

The decision by the Supreme Court goes in favor of a couple, Raymond and Mary Diaz, who sought to build a triple-wide modular home with an attached garage on a lot in the Calvada Valley subdivision in Pahrump.

The architectural review committee of the subdivision said its conditions, covenants and restrictions (CC&Rs) prohibit mobile homes on lots of single-family homes. The restrictions also define where mobile homes can be built.

The Calvada Valley Homeowners Protection Corporation denied the Diaz couple's request to construct the manufactured home, saying it would violate the deed restrictions. The family started construction and a homeowner of an adjacent lot, Len Ferne, filed suit.

Ferne and the homeowners association prevailed in district court, but the state Supreme Court said Nevada law "clearly draws a distinction between a manufactured home and a mobile home."