Missouri ex rel. Webster v. Missouri Trails Resort Corp.

627 F. Supp. 86, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20358
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedApril 26, 1985
Docket85-0798C(3)
StatusPublished

This text of 627 F. Supp. 86 (Missouri ex rel. Webster v. Missouri Trails Resort Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri ex rel. Webster v. Missouri Trails Resort Corp., 627 F. Supp. 86, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20358 (E.D. Mo. 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

HUNGATE, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction, seeking as preliminary relief an injunction similar to the temporary restraining order now in effect.

Plaintiff, State of Missouri, ex rel. William L. Webster, filed this action on April 8, 1985, in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, Missouri, to enjoin alleged violations of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, Mo.Rev.Stat. ch. 407, as well as [87]*87to obtain other forms of equitable relief. The case was removed by defendant, National Credit Union Administration Board, on the s' me date, and the State filed an amended complaint on April 9, 1985. A hearing on the State’s preliminary injunction request was held on April 16 and 17, 1985, with argument heard on April 24, 1985.

Findings of Fact

1. Relator William L. Webster is the duly-elected and acting Attorney General for plaintiff, the sovereign State of Missouri (the State).

2. Defendant, Missouri Trails Resort Corporation (Missouri Trails), was incorporated as a Missouri corporation on December 27, 1982, and is a corporation in good standing with the Secretary of State, State of Missouri, as of the filing of the petition. Among its corporate purposes as set out in its articles of incorporation are operation of a camp resort and recreational facility, provision of the services and facilities ordinarily connected with such a facility, the selling of memberships and ownerships in said recreational facility, financing of the purchase of said memberships or ownerships, and conducting all financial transactions connected with or related to such operations.

3. Defendant, Howard W. Fisher (Fisher), an individual residing in St. Charles County, State of Missouri, is an incorpo-rator of defendant Missouri Trails Resort Corporation and is listed on the corporation’s June 20, 1984, annual registration report as president. The report lists as treasurer Glen S. Fisher, who was also an incorporator of Missouri Trails.

4. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is an agency of the United States government, and defendant National Credit Union Administration Board (NCUAB) manages said agency pursuant to 12 U.S.C. § 1752a.

5. Defendant, Rick Ravine, is an individual and holds the position of the Liquidating Agent appointed by NCUAB to liquidate the assets of Zionic Federal Credit Union (Zionic), which credit union was placed in involuntary liquidation on June 6, 1984.

6. Defendant, Lee G. Kline, is an individual and the Successor Trustee to a deed of trust filed in the Franklin County Recorder of Deeds’ Office in Book 249, Page 110, concerning 28.87 acres in Missouri Trails’ recreational facility at Villa Ridge, Missouri.

7. Missouri Trails has carried on the business of advertising, offering for sale, and selling memberships to the public in and from the State of Missouri since January 1, 1983, to October 31, 1984, for the recreational use of facilities located at property called Missouri Trails Resort in Villa Ridge, Missouri, County of Franklin.

8. From April of 1983 through November of 1984, Missouri Trails employed sales personnel to give sales presentations to prospective membership purchasers at Missouri Trails Resort, Villa Ridge, concerning the terms of membership, as well as a description and tour of the facility.

9. The sales personnel were under the supervision and instruction of an individual named Roger Smith. Smith received and carried out instructions from Fisher in 1983 to have the Missouri Trails sales personnel tell prospective membership purchasers that construction of a lodge would begin on the sale of the five hundredth membership.

10. The five hundredth membership in Missouri Trails Resort was sold in November of 1983, and the five hundredth membership net of cancellations was sold in April of 1984.

11. In mid-April of 1984, Missouri Trails initiated application procedures involving sketch plan review of the lodge and facilities by the Franklin County Planning & Zoning Commission (Commission). After the plans were reviewed, County Planning & Zoning Director Richard Oldenburg sent Missouri Trails a letter regarding various aspects of applicable regulations.

12. The April, 1984, letter by Oldenburg did not grant Missouri Trails the right to [88]*88start construction on the lodge or other facilities; rather, initiation of construction required approval of a preliminary plan and plat by the Commission, along with establishment of an escrow account.

13. In August of 1984, Missouri Trails submitted its preliminary plat. Missouri Trails made a presentation on its plans to the Commission in September of 1984. After the meeting, on September 20, 1984, the Commission sent Missouri Trails a letter granting conditional approval to the plans and listing seven requirements before final approval could be given.

14. Missouri Trails was not free to begin construction of a lodge upon receipt of the letter, but various improvements could have been commenced upon establishment of the escrow account.

15. Oldenburg testified that it should probably have taken about thirty days to fulfill the Commission’s seven preconditions, but Missouri Trails has never submitted a final plan or established an escrow account.

16. Harold Wibbenmeyer, an employee of the architectural firm which had contracted to provide drawings of the lodge, worked on said drawings during the summer of 1984. In September of 1984, his employer told him to stop working on those drawings.

17. Glen Fisher, Missouri Trails’ developmental director, testified that the architects were directed to stop working on the lodge because zoning had not been completed and it was futile to spend money on1 architects and engineers when work could not be started. He acknowledged that Missouri Trails owed money to the architects, but denied that this was the reason that such work was stopped.

18. Defendant Howard W. Fisher told a meeting of members of Missouri Trails Resort, shortly after the letter listing seven preconditions was issued by the Commission to Missouri Trails on September 20, 1984, that plans for construction on the lodge were being delayed by Franklin County’s failure to issue a permit. He indicated that money had been put aside for the building, and that construction would begin as soon as the County officers “got off their tails” and issued a permit. Another meeting occurred a month later with Missouri Trails’ representative Dan Kibler, who was vague and uninformative.

19. Throughout the summer of 1984, various Missouri Trails employees were directed to clear area for the lodge and move some dirt around. At least one employee had the impression that the work had been directed for the purpose of forestalling complaints by members. Resort manager Bart Drake testified that Howard Fisher had told him to tell members that summer that the lodge was being redesigned to be larger, and that construction was also being held up by a zoning problem.

20. Throughout the sales of memberships, prospective members were told that various amenities such as tennis courts and riding stables would be constructed, as well as the aforementioned lodge, with an indoor pool. None of these specific amenities ever came into being, nor were adequate roads created.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
627 F. Supp. 86, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-ex-rel-webster-v-missouri-trails-resort-corp-moed-1985.