Home/Missouri Court of Appeals/Faris v. City of Caruthersville

Faris v. City of Caruthersville

301 S.W.2d 63, 1957 Mo. App. LEXIS 490
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 22, 1957
Docket7491
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 301 S.W.2d 63 (Faris v. City of Caruthersville) 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
Faris v. City of Caruthersville, 301 S.W.2d 63, 1957 Mo. App. LEXIS 490 (Mo. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

RUARK, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court which upheld the validity of an extension of the city limits of Caruth-ersville. In 1948 the city council submitted to the electorate, and the voters approved, a proposition for the annexation of four tracts. The largest of these tracts aopears to be one of 51.3 acres located immediately adjacent to the northwest corner of the city limits, and it is this tract over which the battle rages. On June 26, 1950, the owners brought suit to have the ordinance and consequent annexation declared invalid because such was arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive and worked a fraud on the owners. Thereafter the suit apparently lay dormant until December 17, 1954, when it was tried, and, judgment being rendered against the owners, they have appealed.

Caruthersville is a city of the third class which lies and preens itself behind the levee of the Mississippi River, which river runs in a slight curve along the north and northeastern boundary of the city. The present corporate limits, including the area annexed, are irregular. The most nearly we can describe the outside boundary is that it is somewhat in the shape of a flying squirrel lying with its head in the slight curve of the river and the extended wings on either side running along the levee to the right and left, the body and tail extending south. The plat which follows shows the 51.3 acres in question here in relation to the extreme northwest corner of the city prior to annexation, which portion of the city, together with the annexed area, makes up the left wing of the flying squirrel. The tract in question is - part of a 342-acre farm which lies immediately adjoining the west side,;: of the city. Prior to the annexation a portion of the city, that shown on the plat as the fairgrounds, stuck out into the east side of this farm like a fat, stubby thumb. A fragment of the land taken encircles the fairgrounds and makes the city boundary in that vicinity somewhat more regular. The tract annexed is bounded on its west side by what is called “the old Hayti gravel road.” Immediately to the .east of the annexed land is a blacktopped city street on the old city boundary line. Crossing the south portion is a freight line of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, and the north boundary is the Mississippi River levee. Running across the north one-third of the tract is a paved highway (Missouri No. 84). Thus, the greater portion of the tract is enclosed by a gravel road on the west, by city streets on the east, by a railroad on the south and the river on the north, and it is bisected by a state highway. This highway is one of the main traffic-ways in and out of the city. After crossing the tract in question and extending further to the east it becomes West Third Avenue, which is one of the main business thoroughfares of the city running east and west. The land along both sides of this highway inside the city is largely taken up with business and commercial establishments, and we gather from the evidence that farther west of town, after the highway leaves plaintiffs’ land, there are also some commercial or business establishments along this highway. Northeast of this highway is a narrow strip of land (a part of the annexed tract) running between the highway and the levee. On approximately two acres of this strip north of the highway is located an oil storage tank yard owned by the Refiners Relay, Inc., which has pipelines across the levee in order to receive oil from river barges. Across the levee from the northeast corner is a busy ferry landing with a road or street which connects with the highway and with the street running down the east side of the tract in question. (See map.)

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Bluebook (online)
301 S.W.2d 63, 1957 Mo. App. LEXIS 490, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/faris-v-city-of-caruthersville-moctapp-1957.