St. Louis County v. Village of Peerless Park

494 S.W.2d 673
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 24, 1973
DocketNo. 34584
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 494 S.W.2d 673 (St. Louis County v. Village of Peerless Park) 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
St. Louis County v. Village of Peerless Park, 494 S.W.2d 673 (Mo. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

CLEMENS, Judge.

Suit by St. Louis County for declaratory judgment challenging an annexation by the Village of Peerless Park. The trial court [674]*674upheld the annexation and the County appeals. We affirm.

We are met at the outset with the County’s contention of res judicata arising from the prior attempt by the Village to annex the same land. The Village filed suit in 1966 under the Sawyers Act, § 71.0151, to annex two parcels of land. Judgment went against the Village and it appealed. In 1968 while the appeal was pending the Village proceeded to annex the two parcels under § 71.920 which provides for automatic annexation after elections in which the votes are unanimous. It is that annexation the County is now attacking.

Res judicata is inapplicable here. It does not bar a subsequent action where the law under which the first judgment was rendered is different than that applicable to the second action. Mission Theaters v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 88 F. Supp. 681 (W.D.Mo.1950). In a Sawyers Act procedure a municipality has the burden to establish the reasonableness of an annexation, whereas under § 71.920 annexation is automatic, subject to the County establishing the -««reasonableness of the annexation, as will be seen infra. We hold that the principle of res judicata is no bar in the suit before us.

This is not the usual annexation suit where a municipality seeks judicial approval of a proposed annexation under the Sawyers Act, § 71.015. Instead, the Village complied with § 71.920 which provides that if voters in both the municipality and the area to be annexed vote unanimously for the annexation “. . . the annexation shall be complete and final and thereafter all courts of this state shall take judicial notice of the limits of that municipality as so extended.”

Despite the closing words of that statute, the County does have standing to challenge the annexation here since “the question of reasonableness is still subject to judicial review, with the burden of proof being on the challenger to establish that the annexation is unreasonable, so that, in reality, the effect of § 71.920 is not to do away with judicial review but to change the burden of proof from the municipality to the one making the protest.” St. Louis County v. Village of Champ, 438 S.W.2d 205 [2-5], 1.c. 213 (Mo.1969).

We are not faced here with the usual case of a municipality seeking expansion to annex adjacent residential territory into which it is growing. Instead, Peerless Park has annexed an 11-acre tract (Parcel 1) and a 149-acre tract (Parcel 2) principally for industrial purposes. In Champ, l.c. 213, 214, the court declared that an annexation primarily for industrial development is no longer per se unreasonable, and that “the public policy of the state now favors more ambitious industrial development by municipalities . . . and acknowledging the above mentioned change in public policy, it follows that consideration of whether the proposed annexation is ‘necessary [or perhaps we should say likely] to foster growth and prosperity’ of the annexing city is now entitled to greater weight than it has previously received

Our study of the facts has not been helped by the County’s 54-page statement of facts in its printed brief. Rule 84.04(c), V.A.M.R., requires a concise statement of relevant facts. The County’s brief has no such statement but recites, seriatim, the testimony of 25 witnesses in violation of Rule 84.04(c). We elect, however, to consider the case on its merits.

The trial court filed a detailed statement of facts upholding annexation and we find the following facts to be supported by credible evidence:

The original Village contained 160 acres in west St. Louis County. The Village and the two annexed parcels lay between the Meramec River on the north, a park on the east, and Meramec Station Road on the [675]*675south. The Village now has about 60 residents ; in 1960 it had 99.

Parcel No. 1 has about 11 acres, lying at the southeast corner of the Village; Parcel No. 2 has 150 acres lying east of the Village. Part of the Village and all of Parcel 2 are in the flood plain of the Meramec River. Before the 1968 annexation Parcels 1 and 2 were zoned non-urban and flood plain non-urban respectively. Land can be raised out of the flood plain either by filling the land above the known flood level or by building a protective levee of sufficient height. Owners of private property in the Village for three years had been raising the land out of the flood plain by a “fill-type” method.

Interstate Highway 1-44 came through the Village in the early 1960s and wiped out the entire business district at the intersection of old highway U.S. 66 and Missouri 141, taking 50 of the Village’s 160 acres. Only one business was left after the highway came through; it was rebuilt along Highway 141 in the Village north of the intersection. Other businesses also built and rebuilt along Highway 141. New buildings have been required by Village action to be built on filled ground to raise the buildings out of flood plain. The new businessmen and the Village trustees decided to find a gravel mining operation they could bring into the Village to produce overburden to fill land so the Village could be rebuilt out of flood plain.

The Bayless Building Materials Company located a gravel mining operation in the old Village before the unanimous elections of 1968. After the election the company built a permanent concrete batch plant and bought a new gravel mining barge, all at a cost of $400,000. The company was relying on the fact that they could expand the gravel extraction lake into the newly annexed Parcel 2. The gravel operation and the lake now are located about two-thirds in the old village and one-third in Parcel 2.

A newly erected drivein theater is two-thirds within the old village and one-third on Parcel 2, built primarily on a dirt fill obtained from the Bayless gravel operation. The Peerless Land Company sanitary landfill is in both the old village and in Parcel 2. The earth to cover the landfill is obtained from the overburden of the Bayless gravel operation.

Half of Meramec Station Road was paved, is maintained by the Village and is in better condition than the County’s half. Street lights installed by the Village assist the flow of traffic and reduce accidents at intersections. The part of the road east of Highway 141 was the old dividing line between the Village and unincorporated St. Louis County; annexation has placed that portion of the road fully within the Village.

Annexation of Parcel 1 resolves the problem caused by changes in the location of the new service road which put part of the road in Parcel 1 and part of Parcel 1 within the limits of the old Village. Raising Parcel 2 out of flood plain would have a minimal effect on the balance of the County flood plain.

The Village has a contract with the County Police Department for patrol coverage and has a two-way auto radio working with the County’s radio system. The County Police enforce State criminal laws within the Village. Four of the Village’s police officers are deputized by St. Louis County and the Village has its own fully equipped police car. The Village marshal patrols during the day and evening and on weekends a fully qualified police officer is hired to man the equipment and patrol the Village.

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Related

City of Town & Country v. St. Louis County
657 S.W.2d 598 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1983)
Smith v. City of St. Charles
552 S.W.2d 60 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1977)
City of St. Peters v. Kodner Development Corp.
509 S.W.2d 788 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1974)
Bayless Building Materials Co. v. Peerless Land Co.
509 S.W.2d 206 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
494 S.W.2d 673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-county-v-village-of-peerless-park-moctapp-1973.