State ex rel. City of Creve Coeur v. Weinstein

329 S.W.2d 399, 1959 Mo. App. LEXIS 441
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 3, 1959
DocketNo. 30255
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 329 S.W.2d 399 (State ex rel. City of Creve Coeur v. Weinstein) 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
State ex rel. City of Creve Coeur v. Weinstein, 329 S.W.2d 399, 1959 Mo. App. LEXIS 441 (Mo. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

RUDDY, Judge.

The case before us is an original proceeding wherein relators in their petition for prohibition pray for an order and writ of this court prohibiting respondent, Hon. Noah Weinstein, a Judge of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, from hearing and considering the allegations and the evidence thereon of the cross-claim and [401]*401counterclaim filed in a condemnation action. The counterclaim and cross-claim was filed by defendants, Howard P. Venable and Katie Venable. Constitutional questions are directly raised in the counterclaim and cross-claim. Where constitutional questions are directly raised on appeal, the jurisdiction is in the Supreme Court. However, in proceedings that have for their purpose the issuance of original remedial writs, we have concurrent jurisdiction with the Supreme Court, notwithstanding constitutional questions are directly raised in the pleading under review. V.A. M.S.Constitution, Article S, Section 4; State ex rel. City of Mansfield v. Crain, Mo.App., 301 S.W.2d 415. The parties concede that jurisdiction to hear this proceeding is in this court.

The relators herein are the City of Creve Coeur, a municipal corporation, and various officials of said municipality.

The events that form the basis of the proceeding before us had their beginning when relator, City of Creve Coeur, filed an action in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County to condemn certain land in the City of Creve Coeur for park and playground purposes under authority of Sections 90.010 and 90.020 RSMo 1949, V.A. M.S., and the applicable provisions of Chapter 88 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S.

The City of Creve Coeur in its petition for condemnation alleged that it had duly passed Ordinance No. 162, entitled “An Ordinance Providing For The Acquisition Of Property For A Public Park and Playground by Purchase Or Condemnation Within The City Of Creve Coeur, Describing The Property To Be Purchased Or Condemned Therefor.” Thereafter follows a description of the property and the owners thereof. The petition sought to condemn two lots owned by the Venables, a tract of land owned by Louis Phillip Dielmann and Mary Dielmann, his wife, and a tract of land owned by Gene Wiley and Marie B. Wiley, his wife. The petition contains a prayer for the appointment of “three disinterested commissioners, freeholders of property in said City, to assess the damages which said owners may severally sustain by reason of the appropriation and condemnation” of the real estate mentioned in the petition.

After the petition for condemnation and for the appointment of commissioners was filed, defendants, Howard P. Venable and Katie Venable, filed a pleading styled “Separate Answer of Howard P. Venable and Katie W. Venable To Plaintiff’s Second Amended Petition For Appointment Of Appraisers, And Separate Counterclaim and Cross-Claim of Howard P. Venable and Katie W. Venable.” In connection with the counterclaim and cross-claim these defendants joined as “third-party defendants” the members of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Creve Coeur, the Mayor, Building Commissioner, and City Attorney of said city and the Special Assistant to the City Attorney. A “Third Party Summons” was issued by the court and served on the aforementioned “third-party defendants.” The Venables in their answer “by way of additional affirmative defense,” incorporated by reference the allegations contained in certain paragraphs of their counterclaim and cross-claim. The prayer of said counterclaim and cross-claim asked “that third party defendants and the City of Creve Coeur, be enjoined from withholding a Plumbing Permit for Lot 10 * * * and from further proceeding with * * * the condemnation suit now pending * * * and that all third party defendants be enjoined from interfering with and conspiring against defendants, Howard and Katie Venable, to deprive them of their constitutional and civil rights related to residential housing in said city; * * *.”

The City of Creve Coeur and the third party defendants, brought in under the counterclaim and cross-claim, filed motions to strike the allegations of the counterclaim and cross-claim and to dismiss said counterclaim and cross-claim. These motions were overruled by the trial court.

The City of Creve Coeur and the “third party defendants” as relators in the instant [402]*402prohibition proceeding contend that the allegations and matters contained in the counterclaim and cross-claim filed by the Ven-ables and the relief prayed for therein are beyond the trial court’s jurisdiction and ask that our preliminary rule in prohibition heretofore issued be made permanent. Our preliminary writ of prohibition prohibited the trial judge from “hearing or considering the allegations and evidence thereon of the cross-claim and counterclaim * * The respondent Judge in his return contends that jurisdiction to hear and decide the matters contained in the counterclaim and cross-claim are lodged in the trial court and that our preliminary rule in prohibition should be dissolved.

The issues presented require an examination of the allegations contained in the counterclaim and cross-claim in question. The pleading containing the counterclaim and cross-claim is lengthy and contains repetitive allegations. We think the following is a fair summary of the allegations in the pleading under review.

it was alleged by defendants, Howard P. Venable and Katie W. Venable, his wife, that they were the owners of two of the lots sought to be condemned and that these lots had been platted and zoned for residential purposes. These defendants had commenced construction of a residence on one of the lots pursuant to a building permit issued to the Ashby Developing and Investment Corporation and said residence is partially completed.

It is further alleged in said counterclaim and cross-claim that plaintiff and the third party defendants have combined and conspired to deprive these defendants of their personal and property rights secured to them by the Constitution and Laws of the United States and the Constitution and Laws of the State of Missouri because defendants are members of the Negro race.

It is further alleged that because of this conspiracy and combination defendants have been denied the right to choose, free from racial discrimination, the City of Creve Coeur in which to make their home.

The overt acts constituting the alleged unlawful scheme, combination and conspiracy as particularized in said counterclaim and cross-claim, we summarize in some respects and in others we recite the allegations verbatim.

It is alleged that plaintiff and third party defendants have:

“authorized and directed emissaries * * * to force said defendants to sell their property to private persons under intimidation and threat of community coercion, official coercion, and condemnation * * * ”;
refused to issue to defendants and their contractor a plumbing permit to which they were entitled under the ordinances of the City of Creve Coeur and applicable regulations of the Metropolitan Sewer District;
administered the affairs of said city for the purpose of discriminating against said defendants;
enacted “a condemnation ordinance solely for the purpose * * * of denying to them (the Venables) the exercise of their constitutional rights of residence in the City of Creve Coeur * * * ”;

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Bluebook (online)
329 S.W.2d 399, 1959 Mo. App. LEXIS 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-city-of-creve-coeur-v-weinstein-moctapp-1959.