Arbogast v. City of St. Louis

285 S.W.3d 790, 2009 Mo. App. LEXIS 638, 2009 WL 1375642
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 19, 2009
DocketED 90137
StatusPublished

This text of 285 S.W.3d 790 (Arbogast v. City of St. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arbogast v. City of St. Louis, 285 S.W.3d 790, 2009 Mo. App. LEXIS 638, 2009 WL 1375642 (Mo. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

GLENN A. NORTON, Judge.

The City of St. Louis appeals the judgment entered upon a jury verdict awarding Millard Arbogast and Zoie Helms (“Plaintiffs”) $65,000.00 on their wrongful demolition claim. The City asserts that the trial court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claim because Plaintiffs failed to exhaust them administrative remedies before filing suit. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Relevant Facts

In June 2000, Plaintiffs purchased and moved into property which was located at 210-212 Quincy Street in the City’s 11th Ward. A fire caused substantial damage to the property in May 2001. Subsequently, the City determined that the property should be condemned and potentially demolished. After the City demolished the property, Plaintiffs filed a claim against the City for wrongful demolition. The issue in this appeal is whether Plaintiffs were excused from exhausting their administrative remedies (appealing the City’s decision to condemn and potentially demolish the property to the City’s Board of Building Appeals) because the City failed to provide Plaintiffs with notice and an opportunity to be heard in accordance with the requirements of due process. The following facts are relevant to the determination of this issue.

1. Events Prior to the City’s Decision to Condemn

Plaintiffs moved out of the Quincy property a few days after the May 2001 fire, and moved into an apartment located at 3404 Cherokee Street. Plaintiffs then filled out a form with the post office to reflect their change in address. By July 2001, mail addressed to Plaintiffs at the Quincy address was returned to the sender by the post office. Additionally, mail returned to the sender bore a sticker which notified the sender of Plaintiffs’ new Cherokee address. From July 2001 through July 2002, Plaintiffs received several pieces of mail at the Cherokee address that had been originally addressed to them at the Quincy address, including mail sent from City Divisions other than the Building Division.

Throughout the summer of 2001, Plaintiffs worked on repairing damage to the property that had been caused by the fire. Plaintiffs repaired the roof, removed burned materials from the home, and put up braces, two-by-fours, tarps, and plywood boarding. During the summer of 2001, Plaintiffs had problems with squatters on the property who would take down the plywood boarding from the outside of the home. Plaintiffs replaced the boarding on multiple occasions.

The property was also boarded-up by the City. An invoice from the City’s Forestry Division mailed to Plaintiffs for boarding materials reflected that the City boarded-up the property on August 14, 2001. Although the invoice was originally addressed to Plaintiffs at the Quincy address, Plaintiffs received the invoice at their Cherokee address. A photograph taken by a worker for the City’s Building Division on October 4, 2001, revealed that the property was no longer boarded-up.

2. The City’s Decision to Condemn

On October 16, 2001, Marsha Skaggs, a building inspector for the City’s Building *794 Division, inspected the outside of the property. From her inspection, she determined that the property’s windows, roof, and interior structure violated provisions of the City’s building code, and therefore, the property should be condemned for use and occupancy. Although it is unclear from the record whether the property was boarded-up on October 16, 2001, photographs reflect that the property was boarded-up as of October 19, 2001.

3. The City’s Notice of Condemnation and Potential Demolition

On October 19, 2001, the City’s Building Division served notice of condemnation and potential demolition on Plaintiffs by posting and regular mail as set forth in section 119.2 of City Ordinance No. 64771. 1 The Building Division posted a copy of the notice on the outside of the property. The inspector was at the property when the posting took place. The Building Division also mailed a copy of the notice by regular mail, postage prepaid, to Plaintiffs’ Quincy address, which was the address recorded in the City Assessor’s Office.

The notice stated that the property was condemned for use and occupancy because its unsafe condition violated provisions of the City’s building code. The notice also stated that Plaintiffs must remedy the violations or appeal the decision to condemn to the Board of Building Appeals by October 29, 2001. Finally, the notice provided that if Plaintiffs failed to remedy the violations or appeal the decision to condemn within the time specified, the City would proceed under the authority of the building code to have the unsafe conditions of the property “abated by demolition work and/or whatever work deemed necessary to secure public health, safety and welfare.”

Plaintiffs did not remedy the building code violations and never appealed the decision to condemn and potentially demolish the property to the Board of Building Appeals. Plaintiffs testified that they never saw the notice posted on the property and that they never received the mailed notice.

The inspector testified about her experience with giving notice and about the City’s records and photographs of the property. At the time of her inspection of Plaintiffs’ property, the inspector was responsible for inspecting properties located in the City’s 11th Ward. The inspector stated she was aware that squatters who wanted to live in condemned City properties would tear down boards and condemnation notices from the outside of those properties. She confirmed that “it wouldn’t be unusual” for boards to be taken down from the properties, and that it was “quite common” for squatters or vandals to take down condemnation notices from the outside of properties immediately after she posted them as she was walking back to her car. The inspector also confirmed that the City’s records and photographs indicated that: (1) squatters took down boards from the outside of Plaintiffs’ property; and (2) “at least two separate board-ups” of the property took place before the City posted notice on October 19, 2001. Based on the City’s invoice for boarding materials, the inspector presumed that the first board-up took place on August 14, 2001. Additionally, the inspector confirmed that the City’s photographs, which reflected that the property was not boarded-up as of October 4, 2001, but was boarded-up again as of October 19, 2001, indicated that a second board-up took place between October 4 and 19.

*795 The inspector and Sheila Livers, the demolition supervisor for the City’s Building Division, testified about the City’s procedure for mailing condemnation notices. According to their collective testimony, the Building Division mails notices to City residents at their address listed in the City Assessor’s records even if: (1) the Division knows that the property is unoccupied; (2) the Division learns from the post office that the residents’ address has been changed; and (3) the Division learns the residents’ new address from the post office.

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Bluebook (online)
285 S.W.3d 790, 2009 Mo. App. LEXIS 638, 2009 WL 1375642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arbogast-v-city-of-st-louis-moctapp-2009.