Carl and Janice Duffner v. City of St. Peters

482 S.W.3d 811, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 21, 2016 WL 145556
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 12, 2016
DocketED102898
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 482 S.W.3d 811 (Carl and Janice Duffner v. City of St. Peters) 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
Carl and Janice Duffner v. City of St. Peters, 482 S.W.3d 811, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 21, 2016 WL 145556 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Gary M. Gaertner, Jr., Judge

Introduction and Summary

Carl and Janice Duffner (Appellants) appeal the dismissal of their petition against the City of St. Peters (City). The City had sought to enforce an ordinance requiring Appellants to maintain turf grass on at least 50 percent of their residential yard areas. Appellants initially requested a variance from the City’s Board of Adjustment (Board), and after the Board granted only a partial variance, Appellants filed the present action. Section 89.110 1 provides that parties aggrieved by a board of adjustment decision are "to seek review by requesting a writ of certiorari in the circuit court, but none of the four counts in Appellants’ petition requested a writ of cer-tiorari under Section 89.110. The trial court dismissed the petition, finding it lacked jurisdiction in that Appellants failed to exhaust their administrative remedies.

However, as this.Court has previously held, certiorari procedure under Section 89.110 does. not. encompass review of claims that an underlying ordinance is invalid. To the extent the counts of Appellants’ petition raised challenges to the validity of the ordinance, a trial court did have general plenary jurisdiction over those claims. This Court has held that a trial court may only exercise either (1) its general plenary jurisdiction to resolve issues regarding the validity, of ordinances, or (2) its “limited statutory jurisdiction” under Section 89.110 to review a decision of a board of adjustment by a writ of certiorari. However, in light of the Mis *815 souri Supreme Court’s decision in J.C.W. ex rel. Webb v. Wyciskalla, 275 S.W.3d 249 (Mo. banc 2009), Section 89.110 does not limit the plenary jurisdiction granted to circuit courts by the Missouri Constitution, but rather limits a court’s authority to grant a particular remedy in a particular case. Id. at 254. Because Section 89.110 is not a limit to the court’s jurisdiction under Webb, this calls into question our prior cases holding that a circuit court may act only under its general plenary jurisdiction or under the statute in a single proceeding. However, the petition here did not include both types of claims.

Counts I, III, and IV of Appellants’ four-count petition claimed the ordinance at issue was invalid, and thus the trial court erred in concluding it did not have jurisdiction to rule on these counts. Further, Count II attacked the decision of the Board, and Section 89.110 provides the exclusive remedy for judicial review of that claim. Because Count II did not request a writ of certiorari under Section 89.110 regarding the claimed error of the Board, the trial court properly dismissed it.

Because the trial court did have jurisdiction over Appellants’ claims in Counts I, III, and IV, we also review the other grounds asserted in the City’s motion to dismiss; namely, 'that the petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. In reviewing Count I, a substantive due process claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, we find that it failed to adequately allege conduct on the part of the City that was “truly irrational.” However, Counts III and IV sufficiently pled their respective causes of action for a taking and that the City exceeded its statutory power in enacting the ordinance at issue. Thus, we affirm the trial court’s dismissal of Counts I and II, and we reverse the trial court’s dismissal of Counts III and IV.

Background

Appellants reside in-the City of St. Peters. In May of 2014, Appellants received a notice fi’om the City stating that their property was not in compliance with Section 405.390(A)(4) of the City’s code (the Ordinance), which includes the following requirement: “A minimum of fifty percent (50%) of all yard- areas shall be comprised of turf grass.” At that time, Appellants did not have any turf grass in any of their yard areas.

Appellants applied to the City’s Board of Adjustment for a variance, requesting that they be exempt from the Ordinance’s turf grass requirement. The Board held a hearing, after which it did grant a variance. However, rather than exempting Appellants entirely from the turf grass requirement, the Board reduced the requirement to five percent. The Board also stated that the five percent of turf grass must all be planted in Appellants’ front or side yards.

Appellants subsequently filed a petition in the trial court against the City seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Appellants alleged that their reasons for removing turf grass entirely from their property were to stabilize a hill in their back yard, to deter erosion from water draining into their yard from City property, and to minimize Janice Duffner’s allergic reactions from exposure to grass pollen.

. Appellants’ petition asserted the Ordinance’s turf grass requirement was invalid and raised four counts: that the turf grass requirement violates Appellants’ substantive due process right to control their own private property (Count I); that the variance granted by the Board violates equal protection in that no other property owners had to situate their turf grass completely in front or side-yards (Count II); that the Ordinance’s restrictions constitute anunconstitutional taking of private prop *816 erty (Count III); and that the Ordinance constitutes an exercise of power that exceeds the City’s statutory zoning power (Count IV). Appellants requested that the trial court declare the turf grass requirement unconstitutional = and enjoin the City from enforcing it, and alternatively Appellants requested just compensation for the taking of their private property.

The City moved to dismiss Appellants’ petition, arguing that it failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and that the trial court lacked ‘ subject matter jurisdiction because Appellants failed to exhaust their administrative remedies. The trial court found that Appellants failed to raise their constitutional claims before the Board or in any subsequent administrative appeal under Section 89.110. The trial court held Appellants were required to do so in order to exhaust their administrative remedies, arid thus the trial court concluded it did not have subject matter jurisdiction over Appellants’ petition.' The trial court granted the City’s motion and dismissed Appellants’ petition in its entirety. This appeal follows.

Standard of Review

Our review of a trial court’s dismissal of a petition is de novo. McCarthy v. Peterson, 121 S.W.3d 240, 243 (Mo.App.E.D.2003). We accept the factual allegations in the petition as true and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Id. We “construe the petition liberally [and] give the pleadings their broadest intendment,” in order to determine whether the pleaded facts, “if established, demonstrate a right of recovery against the defendant which the law recognizes, or of a cause that might be adopted in the case.” Plengemeier v. Thermadyne Indus., Inc., 409 S.W.3d 395, 400 (Mo.App.E.D.2013).

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482 S.W.3d 811, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 21, 2016 WL 145556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carl-and-janice-duffner-v-city-of-st-peters-moctapp-2016.