Public Water Supply District Number Seven of Jefferson County v. Lead Belt Water Co.

465 S.W.2d 520, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1129
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 8, 1971
DocketNo. 55469
StatusPublished

This text of 465 S.W.2d 520 (Public Water Supply District Number Seven of Jefferson County v. Lead Belt Water Co.) 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
Public Water Supply District Number Seven of Jefferson County v. Lead Belt Water Co., 465 S.W.2d 520, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1129 (Mo. 1971).

Opinion

STOCKARD, Commissioner.

Appellant, Public Water Supply District Number Seven of Jefferson County, Missouri (hereafter referred to as the “Water District”) is a municipal corporation organized pursuant to Chapter 247, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S. (All subsequent statutory references are to this revision). It entered into a contract with St. Joseph Lead Company (now St. Joe Minerals Corporation, and hereafter referred to as “St. Joe Min-[521]*521erais”) to purchase the waterworks system located in the urban area known as Herculaneum, Missouri, owned and operated by its wholly owned subsidiary, Lead Belt Water Company (hereafter referred to as the “Water Company”), a public utility subject to the regulation of the Missouri Public Service Commission (hereafter sometimes referred to as the “Commission”). The subject of the contract of sale included real property. St. Joe Minerals refused to transfer the property, for reasons subsequently set forth, and the Water District brought suit in the Circuit Court of St. Francois County against St. Joe Minerals and the Water Company for a declaratory judgment in which it also sought specific performance of the contract. The trial court entered summary judgment for the named defendants and against the Water District. An appeal was taken to this court, which has jurisdiction on the basis that the relief sought would compel the transfer of title to real estate. For that reason it is a case “involving * * * the title to real estate.” Dillen v. Edwards, Mo.App., 254 S.W.2d 44; Hillis v. Blanchard, Mo., 433 S.W.2d 276; McCrory v. Brinckmann, Mo.App., 379 S.W.2d 882.

One of the provisions of the contract is as follows:

“10. It is agreed that this agreement and the sale, transfers, and conveyances hereunder are subject to the Missouri Public Service Commission’s approval of discontinuance of service by Lead Belt Water Company; that Purchaser will cooperate in an effort to obtain approval of discontinuance by Lead Belt Water Company; that if said approval is denied, this agreement will be of no further force and effect and Seller will refund to Purchaser the said sum of Twenty-Five Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($25,000.00) paid as above mentioned and thereafter the parties hereto shall be released from all obligations under this agreement.”

Application was made to the Commission by the Water District and the Water Company for authority for the Water Company to cease operating as a public utility in the Herculaneum area. On February 15, 1968 the Commission issued its Report and Order in which it found that the “cessation by Lead Belt [Water Company] of the operation of such properties as a public utility is not detrimental to the public interest,” and it was ordered that the Water Company “is hereby authorized to terminate and cancel its lease of such properties and to cease operating the same as a public utility.” However, on February 28, 1968, a Supplemental Order in said case was issued in which the Commission conditioned its previous order as follows:

“The Commission is now of the opinion that the Report and Order in this case dated the 15th day of February 1968, should be supplemented as follows:

‘Ordered: 3. Nothing in this Report and Order shall be construed as authorizing Lead Belt Water Company to cease operating as a public utility until such time as Lead Belt Water Company shall file with this Commission a certified copy of the Order of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, declaring the Decree of Annexation herein referred to be final and conclusive, as provided by Section 247.-040 RSMo 1959.’ ”

This Supplemental Order has reference to the annexation to the Water District of the territory in which the Water Company operated, as provided by paragraph 8 of § 247.040. Subsequent to the Report and Order of the Commission, as supplemented, an election was conducted as required by Chapter 247 to determine whether the area in which the water system was located should be annexed to the Water District. The result of that election was adverse to annexation. For this reason, the condition set forth in the Supplemental Order of the Commission, namely, that a certified copy of the Order of the Circuit Court declaring the decree of annexation to be final and [522]*522conclusive be filed with the Commission, could not and, as conditions now exist, cannot be met. In other words, the Commission has not given its “approval of discontinuance of service by Lead Belt Water Company,” as provided in paragraph 10 of the contract, except on a condition which has not been met.

The trial court, in entering its decree for summary judgment, found that the Water District “has no legal right or authority to acquire, maintain or operate the water distribution system owned by St. Joseph Lead Company and operated by Lead Belt Water Company and described in the Contract above mentioned because of [Water District’s] failure to annex the territory within which said water distribution system is located as provided by § 247.-040(8) RSMo [1969], and because of the limitations of § 247.050(15) RSMo [1969].” This later statute provides that “The following powers are hereby conferred upon public water supply districts organized under the provisions of sections 247.010 to 247.220: '* * * (15) to sell and distribute water to the inhabitants of the district and to consumers outside the district, delivered within or at the boundaries of the district.”

In its brief on this appeal the Water District states that the issue in this case is whether a public water supply district formed under the provisions of Chapter 247 may “legally acquire and incidentally * * * operate a waterworks facility existing outside of its boundaries for the benefit of persons living within” the district. It then asserts that we should not now be concerned with what ultimately would be the position of the Commission, but if we should sustain the authority of the Water District to acquire the water system, the Commission would have no further interest in exercising its jurisdiction over the Water Company because it has already found the transfer to be in the public interest, and the continuity of water service to persons in the area will be assured.

We cannot accept this conclusion. The Public Service Commission has found that the cessation of the operation of the facilities in the area by the Water Company, a public utility, would not be detrimental to the public interest when the area in which the facilities are located was-to become a part of the Water District, and the customers therein were to be served by it. This would mean that the consumers of water in the area would be transferred from the regulatory protection of the Public Service Commission as to service and rates to an unregulated municipal corporation, but in which the customers would have a voice in the management; such as the election of the board of directors, and the right to have a member of the board from that area.

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Related

Hillis v. Blanchard
433 S.W.2d 276 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1968)
McCrory v. Brinckmann
379 S.W.2d 882 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
465 S.W.2d 520, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/public-water-supply-district-number-seven-of-jefferson-county-v-lead-belt-mo-1971.