Help with HOA

My homeowners association sent a lett telling me I had to pay an extra $600.00 for them to hire a law firm to fight a developer that was trying to develop homes on the golf course that runs through our subdivision. There was no announced vote, we weren\'t given a chance to vote on it. I asked for a copy of our covenents and restrictions to see what the procedures are for this sort of thing it said \"...and agrees to abide by the covenants and restrictions and to pay thereafter as herein provided his or its share of the cost to maintain the roads, streets, drainage systems, lighting systems thereon police or comunity protection and garbage and trash collection, \'and any other expenses within this phase I subdivision deemed necessary by the association\'s Board of Directors\'.\" My question is- if I took this to small claims court to try and get back my $600.00 would it be immediately thrown out? This last statement in the covenants seems pretty open ended, but I interpreted it to mean that the HOA could collect money for upkeep of the place, not to pay the legal bills for people that lived directly on the golf course. If you were me, what would you do? It bothers me to no end that they have doubled my HOA fees for the year using this one line in the covenants as an excuse. If I did go to small claims court, what \'chapter and verse\' would I quote as a precedent? Or would I even need to? The HOA board members are very arrogant and dismissive and I don\'t want to be spinning my wheels here for thier amusment but I want to get my money back as well. Your advice?

You may very well prevail. They normally should ask you for those kinds of extra efforts, especially when they charge you.