Missouri Land Development I, LLC v. Raleigh Development, LLC

407 S.W.3d 676, 2013 WL 3246389, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 802
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 28, 2013
DocketNo. ED 99258
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 407 S.W.3d 676 (Missouri Land Development I, LLC v. Raleigh Development, LLC) 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
Missouri Land Development I, LLC v. Raleigh Development, LLC, 407 S.W.3d 676, 2013 WL 3246389, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 802 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

ROY L. RICHTER, Judge.

Missouri Land Development I, LLC (“Appellant”) appeals from the trial court’s judgment, entered by the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, quashing and permanently enjoining a writ of execution for the sheriffs sale of real property in satisfaction of a default civil money judgment entered on September 27, 2010, against Raleigh Properties, Inc. and Raleigh Development, LLC to enforce six mechanic’s lien claims. We affirm.

I. Background

The facts of this case are dense, and thus, a brief synopsis facilitates our legal analysis. The story begins with the purchase of empty ground in Eureka, St. Louis County, Missouri, in July 2004, by Raleigh Properties, Inc. (“Raleigh Properties”), on which a residential subdivision was planned. In December 2004, Raleigh Properties executed a quitclaim deed conveying the entire property to Raleigh Development, LLC (“Raleigh Development”). However, in January 2005, Raleigh Properties executed a subdivision plat creating Hillington Estates, consisting of 26 residential lots and common ground. The plat was recorded on January 21, 2005. On April 8, 2005, the previously executed quitclaim deed to Raleigh Development was recorded.

On October 20, 2005, Raleigh Properties recorded a boundary adjustment plat for Lot 16. Both plats were executed and recorded by Raleigh Properties, even though it had already conveyed the subdivision property to Raleigh Development. In 2006 and 2007, Raleigh Properties executed and recorded, as the grantor, general warranty deeds to convey Lots 3, 10, 16, 23, and 26 and the common ground in Hillington Estates subdivision to William and Jane Steck, David and Barbara Ploch, James and Renee Floyd, Anthony and Ann Amick, Dennis and Lisa Flick, and Hilltop Villages Community Association, Inc. (collectively, “Respondents”).

In April 2008, River City Drywall Co., Inc. filed suit in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County seeking to enforce its mechanic’s hens against various lots of the Hillington Estates subdivision. In June 2008, Missouri Land Development I, LLC (“Appellant”), a contractor hired by Raleigh Properties, Inc. and Raleigh Development, LLC (collectively, the “Raleigh Defendants”) to do the grading, excavating, street and sewer work for the subdivision, intervened in the mechanic’s lien lawsuit based on nonpayment for its work. In addition to Appellant’s mechanic’s lien claim against the Hillington Estates subdivision, the petition included a count for quantum meruit against the Hillington Estates subdivision and breach of contract against the Raleigh Defendants.

On May 14, 2010, the trial court entered a judgment denying the mechanic’s lien claims of River City Drywall, Inc., and [681]*681another contractor, Ambassador Floor Co. on the basis that they failed to give the statutory ten-day mechanic’s lien notice to Raleigh Development, which was the legal owner of the subdivision property. This judgment later was reversed on appeal in River City Drywall, Inc. v. Raleigh Properties, Inc., 341 S.W.3d 716 (Mo.App. E.D.2011).

Additionally, on March 23, 2010, the trial court entered judgment against Appellant and in favor of the Respondents, finding Appellant’s mechanic’s lien invalid because it did not comply with Missouri’s mechanic’s hen statutes. The trial court held that Appellant’s mechanic’s lien was not a valid and enforceable lien, Appellant was not entitled to a lien for its services on the Hillington Estates property, and the lien and all invoices and amounts therein were fully and forever released as a lien upon the property described in Appellant’s petition, including the specific lots in which Respondents held or claimed an interest. Included in its findings of fact, the trial court found the following facts were not in dispute:

• Respondents are the owners or have an interest in the land subject to Appellant’s mechanic’s lien claims;
• Raleigh Development and Raleigh Properties are the former owners of all the lots that make up the property prior to conveying the lots to Respondents and others;
• Appellant and Raleigh Properties entered into a contract to perform excavation and grading work for the Hill-ington Estates project and a second contract for the installation of sewers, detention work and blasting for basements; and
• Appellant’s lien claim relates to additional grading, excavation and sewer work not contemplated by the two contracts performed by Appellant.

In April 2010, Appellant requested the trial court reconsider and reverse summary judgment, or alternatively, to certify the March 23, 2010 judgment as final and appealable. The trial court granted the motion to certify the judgment for appeal. Appellant also dismissed with prejudice its claims for quantum meruit (count III) against Raleigh Development and the Hill-ington Estates subdivision homeowners and breach of contract (count IV) against Raleigh Properties and Raleigh Development. Appellant appealed from the judgment denying the mechanic’s lien, and this Court affirmed the trial court’s judgment in Missouri Land Development I, LLC v. Raleigh Properties, Inc., 347 S.W.3d 172 (Mo.App. E.D.2011), pursuant to Rule 84.16(b).1 In the meantime, however, while that appeal was pending, Appellant secured a default money judgment on September 27, 2010, against Raleigh Properties and Raleigh Development on Count II of its petition for mechanic’s lien (“Money Judgment”). The Money Judgment stated that it was retroactive to, and effective as of March 23, 2010; and it was “separate from, and does not alter, amend or affect, the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgment as to [Appellant] that the Court entered on March 23, 2010.”

Thereafter, on July 30, 2012, Appellant caused a writ of execution to be issued by the Circuit Court of St. Louis County against Raleigh Development, directing a sheriffs sale of Lots 3, 10, 16, 23, and 26 and the common ground in the Hillington Estates subdivision in satisfaction of the Money Judgment entered against Raleigh [682]*682Development. The sale was scheduled for September 6, 2012, and the legal and record owner of all the properties was Raleigh Development. On August 21, Appellant recorded a Notice of Lis Pendens with respect to this execution action, wherein the action was designed to affect the real estate of which the following parties have a claim or interest or is the owner of record: Raleigh Development, William P. Steck, Jane Christensen-Steek, David W. Ploch, Barbara A. Ploch, James M. Floyd, Renee C. Floyd, Anthony A. Amick, Ann M. Am-ick, Dennis Flick, Lisa Flick, and Hilltop Village Community Association.

Respondents intervened in this action contending that they were the true owners of the subject properties pursuant to the general warranty deeds, which they had received from Raleigh Properties in 2006 and 2007. Respondents filed two related but separate actions in the trial court, including applications for an immediate temporary restraining order to stop the pending sheriffs sale, and corresponding requests for preliminary and permanent injunctions. They also filed separate petitions under Section 513.360, RSMo (2011)2 , and Missouri Rule of Civil Procedure 76.25 to permanently quash the writ of execution and to enjoin Appellant from taking any future actions to execute against the properties.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
407 S.W.3d 676, 2013 WL 3246389, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-land-development-i-llc-v-raleigh-development-llc-moctapp-2013.