State ex rel. Taylor v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of Kansas City

586 S.W.2d 331, 1979 Mo. LEXIS 363
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 11, 1979
DocketNo. 61220
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 586 S.W.2d 331 (State ex rel. Taylor v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of Kansas City) 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
State ex rel. Taylor v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of Kansas City, 586 S.W.2d 331, 1979 Mo. LEXIS 363 (Mo. 1979).

Opinions

WELLIVER, Judge.

This is an original information in the nature of quo warranto. It is filed by relator William R. Taylor with the approval of the Attorney General to test the authority of respondent Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of Kansas City, hereinafter referred to as “LCRA”, to issue Mortgage Revenue Bonds and Housing Revenue Bonds. The relator is an individual resident, registered voter and taxpayer residing at 9 West 125th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, and respondent LCRA is a public corporation organized and existing pursuant to the provisions of §§ 99.300 to 99.660, RSMo 1978.

The information filed by relator challenges the statutory authority for and the legality and constitutionality of respondent’s actions taken in the process of attempting to issue fifteen million dollars of bonds. We find and hold that respondent has exceeded its statutory authority in attempting to issue these Mortgage and Housing Revenue Bonds.

The facts are stipulated or admitted in pleadings. Respondent LCRA of Kansas City, Missouri, has adopted resolutions and is taking actions to issue and sell its Mortgage Revenue Bonds and its Housing Revenue Bonds (collectively, the “Bonds”). The Bonds will not be payable from funds raised by taxation. It is intended that interest on the Bonds will be exempt from federal income taxation.

[332]*332The proceeds of the sale of the Mortgage Revenue Bonds are intended to be used to make loans to individuals (the “Mortgagors”) who will either be occupiers, developers, or landlord-owners of single-family or two-to-four-family residences in Kansas City, Missouri. Landlords need not reside in the mortgaged premises. Respondent intends to make some loans “involving mortgagors of moderate and high income levels.” It intends “to finance some mortgages without limitation to the maximum amount of the loan or the maximum value of the property”. Respondent intends to contract with other persons who will service some of the mortgage loans by collecting and appropriately applying monthly payments from the Mortgagors and enforcing the terms of the mortgage loans. The proceeds of the sale of the Housing Revenue Bonds would be used to make loans to private lenders (the “Lenders”) who will make loans to Mortgagors.

It is intended that the tax-exempt interest on the bonds will permit respondent to make available loans to the Mortgagors and Lenders at lower rates of interest than conventional market rates, thereby reducing the principal and interest payments of the Mortgagors. The Mortgagors would be required to use the proceeds of the mortgage loans for the purchase, construction or rehabilitation of residential units. These residential units must be located on land necessary or incidental to the respondent’s land clearance or urban renewal projects. Respondent intends to exercise its own discretion with respect-to whether a particular property is “incidental” to a land clearance or urban renewal project.

Respondent would pledge an appropriate portion of the collective monthly payments from the Mortgagors or the Lenders to pay principal and interest due on the Mortgage Revenue Bonds or the Housing Revenue Bonds, respectively. Each mortgage loan made from the proceeds of the Mortgage Revenue Bonds would be required to be insured or guaranteed and the proceeds of such insurance and guarantees along with reserves would also be pledged to the owners of the Mortgage Revenue Bonds. The Housing Revenue Bonds would be secured by securities guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association.

Respondent contends that statutory authorization for issuance of these Bonds can be inferred from any of the following statutory provisions.

(1) § 99.480.1 gives the Authority the power to issue bonds “for any of its corporate purposes.”

(2) § 99.420.4 gives the Authority power “to prevent a recurrence of blighted or insanitary areas or to effectuate the purposes of this law” and the power to issue these Bonds can be inferred therefrom.

(3) § 99.420.14 grants the power “[t]o exercise all powers or parts or combinations of powers necessary, convenient or appropriate to undertake and carry out land clearance, redevelopment and urban renewal plans and projects and all the powers herein granted.” \

(4) § 99.420.4 uses the word “develop”.

(5) § 99.320.16 defines “real property” for the purposes of the act to include “liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise and the indebtedness secured by such liens.”

(6) § 99.650 provides that “[t]his law shall be construed liberally to effectuate the purposes hereof. Insofar as the provisions of this law are inconsistent with the provisions of any other law, the provisions of this law shall be controlling.”

Respondent then alleges that there is a proper public purpose for its actions in issuing the Bonds, that the Bonds are constitutional under Article VI, Sections 23 and 25 of the Constitution, and that servicing of mortgage loans would not be an unlawful delegation of powers by the LCRA.

The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authorities of Columbia, Springfield and St. Louis have filed briefs amici curiae in support of respondent’s asserted authority to issue the Bonds.

Relator urges that the actions and intended actions of the respondent are not within its statutory grant of power. Relator [333]*333quotes the following language from Taylor v. Dimmitt, 336 Mo. 330, 336, 78 S.W.2d 841, 843 (1934):

It is a general and undisputed proposition of law that a municipal corporation possesses and can exercise the following powers, and no others: (1) Those granted in express words; (2) those necessarily or fairly implied in, or incident to, the powers expressly granted; (3) those essential to the declared objects and purposes of the corporation — not simply convenient, but indispensable. Any fair, reasonable doubt concerning the existence of power is resolved by the courts against the corporation, and the power is denied.

In State ex rel. Mitchell v. City of Sikeston, 555 S.W.2d 281, 288 (Mo. banc 1977), this court reaffirmed the principle that a municipal corporation has only the powers granted to it by the legislature.

To address the question of statutory construction presented, it is helpful to look at the historical development of housing legislation in this and other states. Respondent Authority was created by, and derives its powers from the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority Law, hereinafter referred to as the “LCRA Law”, §§ 99.300 to 99.660, RSMo 1978, first enacted in 1951. The LCRA Law is typical of redevelopment authority statutes passed in many states, primarily in the decade following World War II.1 Such urban redevelopment authorities are commonly authorized to issue revenue bonds to finance projects involving the clearance and redevelopment of blighted and insanitary areas. These statutes commonly empower the redevelopment authorities to acquire property and to pay off liens and encumbrances existing on such property for that purpose. The introductory clause of § 99.420 expressly provides that the powers enumerated therein are those necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes of the LCRA Law, and respondent’s powers must be construed in the light of those purposes.

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