County of Ray v. Heath

636 S.W.2d 413, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 2993
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 6, 1982
DocketNo. WD 32424
StatusPublished

This text of 636 S.W.2d 413 (County of Ray v. Heath) 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
County of Ray v. Heath, 636 S.W.2d 413, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 2993 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

SHANGLER, Presiding Judge.

The plaintiff Ray County sued the defendants Heath and others as Trustees of Crystal Lakes, a residential subdivision within the county, to enjoin the closure of certain of its roadways against use by non-subdivision Ray County residents. The prayer for relief was premised on the pleaded contents of a letter from the Crystal Lakes developer to the county court that the roadways of the subdivision would be available for use to all residents and their guests of Ray County. In the course of the litigation, six subdivision property owners intervened for injunctive relief against the Trustees. The intervenors pleaded the effect of the letter and also premised the right to injunction on the allegation that the action by the Trustees to close certain of the entrances to the subdivision roadways violated the terms of the indenture of trusteeship and, hence, their fiduciary duty to the beneficiary property owners of Crystal Lakes. Then, on the motion of the defendants-Trustees, the court allowed the substitution of a person elected to that office since the institution of suit to replace the person whose office expired.

[415]*415The court found against the contention of Ray County [and the intervenors] that all residents of the county were entitled to unregulated use of the subdivision roadways and denied injunction. The plaintiff Ray County does not appeal from that adverse judgment.

The court found that the Trustees were empowered under the indenture of trusteeship to close the roadway entrances of the subdivision against entry of nonowner traffic, allowed exercise of that power by the installation of movable gates and entrances, but enjoined any permanent barricades. The court further ordered that “each resident of the subdivision shall be entitled to a key or keys to such gate or barricade upon request to the Board of Trustees.” [emphasis added] That order is appealed by the Wuttkes and the LaGrows, four of the original six intervenor suitors.

Crystal Lakes is a private subdivision in Ray County established by certain investors [one Erkenbeck, among others] as the Crystal Lakes Development Corporation. The owner corporation executed a Restrictive Covenants instrument appertaining to the use of the subdivision land which included an indenture of conveyance by the owner to Trustees of the land set apart as roads and other common facilities in the subdivision. The instrument [and, we assume, the plat] was recorded in Ray County on December 13, 1968. The power to provide for and to maintain streets, gateways, entrances and other common facilities in the subdivision has since been exercised by the Trustees, and not the Development Corporation. There is no provision for a police department or fire department in the instrument and those services are rendered by the Sheriff of Ray County and fire departments of Excelsior Springs and Woodheights, nearby.

The subdivision common facilities became subject to acts of vandalism: the bath houses and club houses were invaded, the plumbing was wrenched and torn, and the beaches were strewn with broken glass and other detritus. The cost to repair the damage that year was between $3,000 and $5,000. The budget for the total annual operations of the Trustees was about $38,-000. The subdivision Treasurer estimated that the annual cost to post a security guard at each of the gates would be between $20,000 to $25,000. That scheme was deemed too costly, so in February of 1979, the Trustees circulated a survey letter to each property owner to determine the preference of the majority as to how many gates should remain open. To the 1200 or so inquiries [of that number, 70 were actual residents], 238 responses were received. Of that number, 17 favored one gate open, 110 favored two, 19 favored three, 3 favored four, 8 favored six,1 and 5 favored that no gate remain open. A few others were returned unsigned.

The next month, in March of 1979, the Trustees took steps to reduce vandalism by the closure of gates B, C and F.2 The access to the subdivision roads at those points was obstructed by cables strung from posts and other such means.' Keys to the padlocks to these devices were kept by the Trustees and were furnished to the fire departments, the Excelsior Springs police department and the county sheriff. The security personnel on the subdivision were also given keys. There was always someone on the subdivision premises available to open the gates to a property owner. The gates remained open during the weekend when the facilities were most used. The trustees closed gates B, C and F from among the others because the remoteness of those entrances rendered those areas most vulnerable to unauthorized entry and van[416]*416dalism. The main entrance, gate A, which opened onto Missouri Route Y, was always open and it is by that ingress that the fire department serviced the subdivision because the roads at the other entrances could not accommodate the equipment.

The barricades across gates B, C and F were maintained for about six weeks. The incidence of vandalism decreased during that time. The posts for the gates did not remain intact, however. They were despoiled repeatedly and the Trustees simply abandoned the attempt.3

The intervenors are owners of Crystal Lake property in the near vicinity of the county road and their most convenient point of access is gate B. They complain that the closure of gate B and gate C, also on the county road but somewhat more to the west, unduly impairs the enjoyment of their property. In particular, they complain that the most direct access to Excelsior Springs is via gates B and C, that the blockage of those ways entails travel over an additional mile and a half or more. They say also that when there is rain, access to the main gate A, to which the blockages divert their travel, becomes altogether impossible by a spillway over that road. They say also that at times of high water, the closed gates extend the response time of an emergency vehicle from Excelsior Springs by almost an hour. There was Trustee evidence, however, that at times of rain, all the gates — B and C included, remained open. Also, that the emergency services [the fire department of Excelsior Springs operated the ambulance] were given keys to any locked gate and that — in any event — they always used gate A by choice, an entrance never closed.

The intervenors contend implicitly that the evidence describes a threat by the Trustees to once again barricade entranceways to the subdivision, an invasion of their legal right to unhampered access to their property, and so proves the basis for an injunction. See Higday v. Nickolaus, 469 S.W.2d 859, 864[11, 12] (Mo.App.1971). The defendant Trustees contend that the closure of the several gates was a reasonable exercise of a power conferred by the indenture of trust. The judgment of the court to enjoin the Trustees from future blockage of the en-tranceway to the subdivision unless they furnished the residents upon request a key to the barricade adjudicated, in effect, the authority of the Trustees to regulate the traffic through the gates of the subdivision but that the authority was not reasonably exercised.

The adjudication rests amply on the express provisions of the indenture of trust component of the Restrictive Covenants instrument of conveyance between the developer-owners and the Trustee-grantees.

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Related

Ginter v. City of Webster Groves
349 S.W.2d 895 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1961)
Higday v. Nickolaus
469 S.W.2d 859 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1971)
Nemours v. Hickey
210 S.W.2d 94 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1948)
Georg v. Koenig
387 S.W.2d 259 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1965)
Keener v. Berry
442 S.W.2d 159 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1969)
Cozart v. Green Trails Management Corp.
501 S.W.2d 184 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
636 S.W.2d 413, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 2993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-ray-v-heath-moctapp-1982.