Brentmoor Place Residents Ass'n v. Warren

816 S.W.2d 7, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1385, 1991 WL 171947
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 10, 1991
DocketNo. 59232
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 816 S.W.2d 7 (Brentmoor Place Residents Ass'n v. Warren) 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
Brentmoor Place Residents Ass'n v. Warren, 816 S.W.2d 7, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1385, 1991 WL 171947 (Mo. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

AHRENS, Judge.

In this bench-tried action for injunctive relief, appellant Brentmoor Place Residents Association (“the Association”) appeals from the trial court’s judgment in favor of respondents Ray and Katherine Warren. We reverse and remand.

Respondents own real property as tenants by the entirety in Brentmoor Place, a 110 lot residential subdivision in St. Louis County. A recorded “Indenture of Trust and Restrictions” governs the construction of fences and other structures in the subdivision. The Association, incorporated in 1979 as a Missouri not for profit corporation, acts as trustee for the subdivision. The subdivision’s lot owners are members of the Association which is headed by a three-member Board of Directors.

In November, 1986, Mr. Warren sent a letter to Jack Shugart, chairperson of the Association’s Architectural Review Committee, requesting approval to erect a coach light, fence, satellite dish antenna, and shed on his lot. That letter was postmarked November 24, 1986. At the direction of Board members Edmund Hugill and Mike Beckwith, and within the thirty days required by the Indenture of Trust and Restrictions, Shugart informed Mr. Warren in a December 24, 1986, letter to consider the requests “not approved” pending a meeting to discuss each item. The Committee met on January 10, 1987, with Hugill and Beckwith, among others, in attendance. On the Committee’s recommendation, Hugill and Beckwith, in their capacity as Board members, approved Mr. War[9]*9ren’s request to install the coach light, but denied approval of his requests to erect the fence, shed and satellite dish antenna. Shugart informed Mr. Warren of the Board’s decision in a January 12, 1987, letter. The letter also informed Mr. Warren that prior to further consideration of the fence, “a more precise drawing” of its “placement, construction and location” was required. The Association received no additional specifications or drawings. The Warrens, however, proceeded to erect the fence, shed, and satellite dish antenna.

The Association filed an action for in-junctive relief against Mr. Warren. Following a hearing, the trial court issued an injunction against Mr. Warren mandating removal of the fence, shed, and satellite dish antenna; and permanently enjoining construction of those items on the lot.

Mr. Warren appealed from that judgment, alleging there was no substantial evidence to support the trial court’s findings, and the absence of his wife as a party to the action deprived the trial court of jurisdiction. Brentmoor Place Residents Ass’n v. Warren, 774 S.W.2d 877 (Mo.App.1989). This court concluded there was substantial evidence to support the trial court’s findings. We reversed and remanded, however, for a determination of whether the lot was owned by the Warrens as tenants by the entirety, which would make Mrs. Warren a necessary party to the action. Id. at 879.

On remand, the Association filed an amended petition adding Mrs. Warren as a defendant. Mrs. Warren filed an answer and raised as an affirmative defense that: “[A]ny acts complained of by the Defendant were the acts of individuals who were not properly constituted directors or officers of the Brentmoor Place Residents Association when they were never properly elected. Said individuals attempted to conduct business on behalf of [the Association] when they were never properly elected.” Upon Mrs. Warren’s application, the case was transferred to a different judge.

Following a hearing, the trial court entered its findings of fact, judgment and decree denying the Association’s request for injunctive relief. The trial court found, “No meeting was ever called pursuant to the provisions of the bylaws”; and “no meeting was ever held to elect Edmund F. Hugill as Trustee1, and since no quorum was present at such a meeting, Edmund F. Hugill was not duly elected as a Trustee pursuant to the bylaws.” The trial court further found, “At all times in question, no legally appointed Board of Trustees or Board of Directors ever met to consider and deny the application of defendant for permission to erect the fence, antenna and utility shed.”

Appellant raises three points of error, and requests the case be remanded to award it attorney’s fees pursuant to the subdivision Indenture of Trust and Restrictions and appellant’s First Amended Petition. We find one point dispositive: The trial court erred in denying the Association’s request for injunctive relief, because the trial court’s findings that Hugill was not a duly elected trustee, and that no legally appointed Board of Trustees met to consider the Warrens’ application are not supported by substantial evidence.

Under Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo. banc 1976) we are to sustain the trial court’s judgment “unless there is no substantial evidence to support it....” Id. at 32. Although Mrs. Warren alleged as an affirmative defense that the decisions to deny approval of the fence, shed, and satellite dish antenna were made by individuals who were not properly elected directors of the Association, that allegation was not self-proving. “The burden of proof on an affirmative defense rests with the proponent of the defense.” Stewart v. K-Mart Corp., 747 S.W.2d 205, 208 (Mo.App.1988); McLeod v. Marion Laboratories, Inc., 600 S.W.2d 656, 657 (Mo.App.1980).

The Warrens presented no evidence to support the affirmative defense. The only evidence before the trial court established that Hugill and Beckwith were duly elected members of the Association’s governing board.

[10]*10 I.Meeting to Elect Hugill

The Association’s corporate charter was forfeited on January 1, 1982. At the time of forfeiture, the Association’s Board consisted of Harold, Alan, and David Lieberman. The Indenture of Trust and Restrictions provides that in the event of a forfeiture, title to the common land vests in the Association’s last Board, “who shall continue to hold title to such land to exercise all rights granted the Association under the terms of this Indenture.” Further, upon forfeiture, successors to the last Board “shall be elected by the owners of lots and parcels in Brentmoor Place in the same manner as provided in the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws of the Association in effect at the time of such forfeiture, dissolution or liquidation.”

In October, 1985, a prior Trustee resigned from the Board. Article II, § 3 of the By-Laws provides that special meetings of the members “may be called by the President, by the Board of Directors, or by not less than thirty-four percent (34%) of all of the members of the corporation entitled to vote.” Under Article II, § 5 of the By-Laws, notice of meetings “shall be delivered ... either personally or by mail, by or at the direction o/the President, or the Secretary, or the officer, or persons calling the meeting, to each member.” (Emphasis added). On October 3, 1985, Hal Lieberman, who was not a Board member or officer of the Association, notified the Association’s members “on behalf of the Trustees of Brentmoor Place” that an election to replace the resigning Trustee would be held on November 6, 1985, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

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Bluebook (online)
816 S.W.2d 7, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1385, 1991 WL 171947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brentmoor-place-residents-assn-v-warren-moctapp-1991.