Lewis v. Brubaker

14 S.W.2d 982, 322 Mo. 52, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 588
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 2, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 14 S.W.2d 982 (Lewis v. Brubaker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Brubaker, 14 S.W.2d 982, 322 Mo. 52, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 588 (Mo. 1929).

Opinion

WALKER, J.

This is a suit in equity brought in the Circuit Court of Jackson County April 16, 1924, to declare void a deed made April 30, 1866, by R. J. Lewis and A. A. Goodman, to trustees, therein named, of the Grand Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. The property conveyed is located on the corner of Grand Avenue and Ninth Street, Kansas City, and is described as lots numbered 109 and 110, Swope’s addition.

Upon a trial to the court in March, 1925, there was a judgment for the defendants, from which the plaintiffs have appealed.

The plaintiffs sue as the heirs and the grantees of certain heirs of the original grantors.

*58 The gist of the plaintiffs’ petition is that the deed made by Lewis and Goodman in 1866 should be held to be void and a reverter decreed to plaintiffs on the ground of a misuser in to-wit: that the deed recites that the use of the property was to be limited to church purposes, and in 1910 the trustees in violation of this limitation caused the church building then on the lots to be razed and in its stead erected a combination church and twelve-story office building, known as the Grand Avenue Temple. The invalidity of the deed is alleged to consist in a violation of Sections XII and XIII, Article 1, of the 1865 Constitution of this State.

The defendants are the present trustees of this property, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which is the holder of a first deed of trust on the lots placed thereon by the trustees. Their answers are general denials, pleas of the Statute of Limitations, adverse possession, laches and estoppel.

In July, 1910, the trustees, authorized by the governing body of the church, which is the Quarterly Conference of the Grand Avenue Methodist Church, executed their note as trustees in the sum of $300,000 to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, payable in ten years and secured the same by giving a deed of trust on Lots 109 and 110. With this money the trustees razed the church building then on the lots and erected the combination building which consists of the church building proper, or an auditorium, and the twelve-story building. Lots 109 and 110 have a frontage of ninety-six feet on Grand Avenue and one hundred and fifteen feet on Ninth Street. The church auditorium faces on Ninth Street and occupies the larger area of the lots, i. e., it extends seventy feet on Ninth Street and runs back ninety-six feet and seats about 1400 persons. The twelve-story building occupies forty-five feet on Ninth Street by ninety-six feet on Grand Avenue. The lots are entirely covered by the combination building. These lots are in the heart of the Kansas City business district. The purpose of the erection of the new building was to provide funds from the rentals of the same to carry on the church’s activities. That section of the city was rapidly being devoted to business, and less opportunities were afforded to obtain funds to defray the necessary expenses of the church. This moved the trustees, when authorized by the governing body of the church, as is said by the plaintiffs, “to center on commercializing the property” that the church organization might be there perpetuated and its activities continued.

The facts more in detail as. to the use of the buildings are best shown by the testimony of the rental agent of the office building who has had charge and supervision of the same from 1917 to the time of the trial in 1925.

He testified, in effect, that the office building is. twelve stories and a basement and that it is all rented to attorneys, real estate dealers, *59 insurance companies, manufacturers’ agents, cement companies and various other secular business firms and corporations. The ground floor is occupied by stores, viz., a shoe store, typewriter store, and a haberdasher with a cigar and candy store in the lobby. The rental agent has an office on the second floor. At the time of the trial there were no religious or non-secular tenants in the building, except the pastor of the church, who had; an office on the third floor. He moved in there after this suit was filed. No pastor ever had a permanent office in this building before April, 1924. There was a parsonage for the use of the pastor on these lots at the time of the removal of the old church building. The new buildings covered all of the lots, and the provision of the deed requiring the erection of a residence for the pastor was ignored.

In the basement of the office building is a kitchen which connects with the basement of the church building, and since the latter part of 1923 the Sunday School for small children has been held in the basement of the office building. This Sunday School is held in the church proper when the auditorium of the church is not in use. Since this suit was filed the roof of the office building has been used for a sunrise service on Sunday morning; this had never been done before, nor has it since been regularly continued. The equipment of the office building, such as the heating plant, distributing panel, switch board, distributing panel for electric current and vacuum machine, water-cooling apparatus, oil storage tank, water and gas meters, are all located in the basement of the office building, and serve the church building. The janitor service is entirely separate for the two buildings.

The church and the office building are constructed separately with separate foundations and walls, except a partition wall on the west side of the church adjoining the rear of the office building.

The total net receipts from the rental of the office building from 1917 to 1922, both inclusive, was $320,906.23, or a net average of $3820.31 per month.

The minutes of the Board of Trustees from November 18, 1910, to the date of the trial disclose the following activities exercised by them under the trust: The appointment and hiring of rental agents; the formulating of contracts and leases for renting' office space; advising with agents upon leases of prospective tenants; executing mortgage bonds and: notes; requiring the rental agent to give bond; controlling and managing' the office building; making repairs; collecting rentals of same; providing a sinking fund to pay off indebtedness; endeavoring to rebate taxes and have the same reduced; employing attorneys to defend damage suits; selling mortgage bonds and setting price thereon; employing auditors; allowing and paying accounts of the expenses of the business building; borrowing money at banks; guarding against elevator accidents; paying taxes; adjusting rental differences with tenants; opposing a city license fee for conducting *60 a music hall; altering building to satisfy lessees; enforcing rent collections from delinquent tenants and ejecting them; selling restaurant fixtures to apply on delinquent rent; securing reductions on taxes; investigating location of interurban terminals; approval of report of “Waste Paper Committee” retrieving from janitor his emoluments therefrom; renting church auditorium for various functions; hiring workmen; investigating the cost of operating the business building; considering the employment of an agent for entire property instead of rental agent for business property; operating a failing haberdashery business; investigating accidents in office building; increasing rents and loaning money, and; extending first mortgage loan.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 S.W.2d 982, 322 Mo. 52, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-brubaker-mo-1929.