Buss v. Horine

819 S.W.2d 762, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1781, 1991 WL 244283
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 25, 1991
DocketNos. 17134, 17137
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 819 S.W.2d 762 (Buss v. Horine) 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
Buss v. Horine, 819 S.W.2d 762, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1781, 1991 WL 244283 (Mo. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

PARRISH, Judge.

Everett Robert Buss1 brought an action against Vinton F. Horine, Sr., Jean Horine and Byron Horine (the Horines) and Horine Farms, Inc. (the corporation).2 The case proceeded to trial on a nine-count first amended petition. Plaintiff Everett Robert Buss’ causes of action were based upon the condition of a waste lagoon that was part of a dairy farm that he leased pursuant to a lease with option to purchase, and later purchased, from the corporation. The corporation filed a three-count counterclaim seeking ejectment of plaintiffs from the dairy farm (Count I), damages for breach of contract based upon the terms of the lease with option to purchase that it had entered into with Everett Robert Buss [763]*763(Count II), and an injunction against plaintiffs possessing and entering upon the dairy farm (Count III). The trial court entered judgment for plaintiff Everett Robert Buss, and against the corporation, on one count of the amended petition (Count IV) and ordered the contract between plaintiff Everett Robert Buss and the corporation rescinded. The trial court directed the return of money (with interest) that had been paid to the corporation by plaintiff Everett Robert Buss. Judgment was entered for all defendants on the eight other counts of the first amended petition and, as to Count IV, “on plaintiff Everett Robert Buss’s claim for damages.” The trial court entered judgment for the corporation on Counts I and II of the corporation’s counterclaim. The trial court directed plaintiffs to surrender possession of the dairy farm to the corporation (Count I) and awarded damages for “back rentals,” together with interest, to the corporation (Count II). Count III of the corporation’s counterclaim was deemed moot and “dismissed with prejudice.” This court reverses and remands the case for a new trial.

Vinton F. Horine, Sr., and Jean Horine purchased a dairy farm in Lawrence County, Missouri, in 1978. That same year they formed the corporation, Horine Farms, Inc. The dairy farm was conveyed to the corporation. Vinton, Sr., Jean and Byron were shareholders, directors and officers of the corporation. They undertook to develop the property as a grade A dairy farm. Their efforts to make the property a grade A dairy farm included construction of a lagoon to be used to dispose of animal waste. The lagoon was intended to be used to temporarily hold and treat dairy cattle waste. It was designed so that it would be “pumped down” when it filled to a certain level. The contents, when the lagoon was pumped down, were to be spread over cultivated ground or pasture for irrigation. The lagoon was designed to accommodate a 200-cow dairy operation. It was expected to require “up to four pump downs per year.”

An earthen lagoon was constructed. During the course of the construction, a sinkhole was discovered in an area near the lagoon’s northwest corner. A backhoe was used to repair the sinkhole during the construction of the lagoon by placing a substance identified as bentonite, mixed with clay, in the area of the sinkhole. The ben-tonite-clay mixture was “spread and tamped in.”

After the lagoon was constructed, the most dairy cattle that were milked at the farm at any time was 55 cows. The waste from the cows and the wash-water that was used to rinse the lines through which milk traveled went into the lagoon. Between August 1978, when the lagoon was constructed, and January 1981, when the corporation entered into a lease with option to purchase with plaintiff Everett Robert Buss, the water in the lagoon was never deeper than two or three feet. The maximum storage depth for which the lagoon was constructed was twelve feet. The lagoon was never pumped nor was equipment purchased by the corporation or the Horines with which to pump the lagoon. Rainfall in 1979 was about 42 inches, the approximate average annual rainfall for the area. Other lagoons in the area had water in them during this time.

The lease with option to purchase provided for payment of rent by Buss in the amount of $2,200 per month for one year. Buss was required to pay $10,000 for an option to purchase the leased property. The sales price, in the event the option was exercised, was $482,000 with credit to be allowed for the $10,000 option payment. Rental payments were not to be applied to the purchase price. The purchase agreement provided for the corporation to finance part of the purchase price for a five-year period. Buss exercised the option to purchase when the lease terminated. At that time Buss did not know that there was a sinkhole in the lagoon.

After buying the dairy farm, Buss improved the property and began increasing the size of his dairy herd. In 1983 Buss told defendant Vinton Horine that the lagoon was not holding water. Buss had not been previously told, nor did he know then, that there was a sinkhole in the lagoon. Buss was unable to expand his dairy opera[764]*764tion because of the lagoon’s failure to hold water.

Buss notified defendant Vinton Horine that the deficiency in the lagoon needed to be corrected so that Buss could increase the size of his dairy operation. Defendant Vinton Horine then notified Buss that the corporation would amend the payment schedule for that part of the purchase price that the corporation had financed. Later, the corporation and Buss entered into a written agreement amending the payment terms. Vinton Horine told Buss, in a letter, that he hoped Buss could “proceed with these necessary improvements and repairs.”

In September 1987, a representative of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR), George Parsons, inspected the lagoon. A later report on the condition of the lagoon, made by a geologist from DNR, stated that although the waste from only 30 dairy cattle was entering the lagoon, it was leaking in excess of permissible standards; water supply in the vicinity of the lagoon was at risk; a potential for a sinkhole collapse existed; and the construction procedures that had been used to build the lagoon were inadequate in that the lagoon was not sealed.

In December 1987, Buss reviewed the Lawrence County ASCS records concerning the lagoon on his farm. He found records indicating that there was a sinkhole in the lagoon and that advice had been given at the time the lagoon was constructed that the hole should be filled with bentonite. Buss also discovered a letter from Vinton Horine by which Horine had submitted bills to the ASCS office for payment. The bills that had been submitted with the letter included a bill to Byron Horine for benton-ite.

The nine counts in the first amended petition are neither brief nor precise with respect to the facts alleged. The counts alleged alternate remedies or theories of recovery.

Count I of the first amended petition contained 20 numbered paragraphs of pleaded facts, followed by an additional allegation (paragraph 21 of Count I) “[t]hat Plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law” and that unless instruments and agreements that were executed between the parties “are cancelled, annulled and rescinded, Plaintiff will suffer irreparable injury and damage.”

The prayer in Count I asked for rescission and for imposition of “a constructive trust on Plaintiff Robert Buss’ funds in the hands of Defendants in the sum of $259,984.00 in favor of Plaintiff Robert Buss” plus costs. It sought declaration of a special lien to secure that amount “against the right, title and herein [?],” together with “such further orders and judgments as shall be meet and proper in the premises.”

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Bluebook (online)
819 S.W.2d 762, 1991 Mo. App. LEXIS 1781, 1991 WL 244283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buss-v-horine-moctapp-1991.