Union Electric Co. v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority

555 S.W.2d 29, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 215
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 12, 1977
DocketNo. 59746
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 555 S.W.2d 29 (Union Electric Co. v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority) 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
Union Electric Co. v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, 555 S.W.2d 29, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 215 (Mo. 1977).

Opinion

HENLEY, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing Union Electric Company’s (Union Electric) declaratory judgment action on motion of Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of the City of St. Louis (the Authority) and the City of St. Louis (the City), because the petition failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted.

The ultimate relief sought by Union Electric is a declaration that the Authority and the City are obligated to reimburse it for the cost of relocating electric distribution facilities installed many years ago in one block of a public thoroughfare recently vacated by city ordinance to permit its use as part of an urban redevelopment project.

Union Electric is a public utility engaged in the business of manufacture, transmission and distribution of electricity. It has been engaged in the distribution of electricity in the city for more than 50 years and, pursuant to the authority of ordinance No. 12723 adopted by the City in March, 1884,1 [31]*31it has installed and uses for that purpose underground electrical facilities, including manholes, vaults and conduits in that part of Martin Luther King Drive (an east-west thoroughfare) lying between sixth and seventh streets, which area is part of a larger area designated as the DeSoto Carr Urban Renewal Project.

In 1969 the Authority, pursuant to §§ 99.-300 to 99.6602 (known as the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority Law) and certain ordinances of the city, acquired for redevelopment as a part of the DeSoto Carr Urban Renewal Project two city blocks, one of which adjoins the 600 block of Martin Luther King Drive on the north side and the other adjoins it on the south side. This two-block area and that part of Martin Luther King Drive lying between them is designated in the pleadings as “Convention Plaza Plat 2,” a part of St. Louis’ new Convention Center area.

In October, 1974, the City adopted ordinance No. 56831 vacating the 600 block of Martin Luther King Drive to enable the Authority to utilize it as a part of the urban renewal project.

In February, 1975, the Authority notified Union Electric by letter that this block had been vacated by ordinance and requested that it remove its facilities. In March, 1975, Union Electric informed the Authority by letter that it would remove its facilities, but that it did so “without prejudice to our rights for reimbursement of our costs.”

The allegations of Union Electric’s petition are, in substance: (1) that it and its predecessor companies have complied with all requirements of ordinance No. 12723, by reason of which it has a franchise and vested property rights; the nature and extent thereof being “set forth in ordinance 12723 * * * (2) that “ * * * has removed its * * * facilities as requested by Authority and, in so doing, incurred relocation costs in the amount of $19,643;” and (3) that it has demanded of the Authority and the City payment of these relocation costs, but payment has been refused. The petition further alleges that Union Electric is entitled to receive payment from the City and the Authority of the costs it incurred in removing and relocating its facilities, because: (1) its franchise is “property” within the meaning of Mo.Const. Art. I, §§ 10, 26 and 28, and the U.S.Const. Amend. XIV, which property “may not be taken unless just compensation is paid * * * (2) “ordinance No. 56831, insofar as it requires * * * [Union Electric] to remove its * * * facilities without * * * payment of the costs of * * * [removal and relocation] is invalid” and violates the above constitutional provisions in that “it deprives * * * [Union Electric] of its franchise right to install and maintain underground electrical * * * facilities” in the streets of the City; (3) “ordinance No. 56831 is invalid and unconstitutional, insofar as it requires * * * [Union Electric] to remove its * * * facilities * * * without authorizing the payment of the costs of * * * [removal and relocation] in that it impairs * * * ” the obligation of its contract with the City in violation of Mo.Const. Art. I, § 13, and U.S.Const. Art. 1, § 10; and (4) ordinance No. 56831 “was instigated and directed by” and “was accomplished for” the benefit of the Authority “for a proprietary, rather than governmental, purpose or function, namely the use of such property for a privately owned and operated hotel.”

[32]*32The prayer of the petition is that the court declare (1) that Union Electric has a franchise with the City; (2) that ordinance No. 56831 is unconstitutional and void insofar as it requires Union Electric to remove and relocate its described facilities without payment of the expense thereof by the City and Authority; and (3) that Union Electric is entitled to recover the expense of such relocation from the City and Authority.

We are inclined to agree with the trial court that Union Electric’s petition does not state a claim on which relief may be granted.

Union Electric has, as it claims, a right to locate its electric distribution facilities in the streets and alleys of the City of St. Louis. The source of the right is, as it states, ordinance No. 12723. This court considered this particular ordinance in State on Inf. of Jones, ex rel. City of St. Louis v. Light and Development Co. of St. Louis, 246 Mo. 618, 152 S.W. 67 (banc 1912). Ordinance 12723 is spoken of in that case as granting to anyone who had accepted and complied with its terms, enforceable franchise or contract rights to use the city streets and alleys for the distribution of electricity. 152 S.W. at 75. See also: State on Inf. of Jones v. West End Light and Power Co., 246 Mo. 653, 152 S.W. 76, 80, 81[6, 7] (banc 1912); City of St. Louis v. Laclede Power and Light Co., 347 Mo. 1066, 152 S.W.2d 23 (Mo.1944); City of Brunswick v. Myers, 357 Mo. 461, 209 S.W.2d 134 (1948); 39 Am.Jur.2d, Highways, Streets and Bridges, § 236, pp. 616-619.

However, this right of Union Electric to use the 600 block of Martin Luther King Drive for the distribution of electricity is not unconditional; it is subject, by express terms of the franchise or contract, to “such restrictions, regulations and qualifications as may be prescribed by said Board.” It is subject to a condition clearly expressed in the ordinance on which the rights claimed are based: a reservation of the right to direct relocation of electric distribution facilities installed in a street. In accepting this franchise it also accepted this condition as a part of the contract and is in no position to complain of its exercise. City of Brunswick v. Myers, supra (209 S.W.2d at 137[3]).

In light of this agreed-to reservation, it may not reasonably be said that ordinance No. 56831, insofar as its vacation of this block of Martin Luther King Drive resulted in requiring Union Electric to remove its facilities therefrom, was a law impairing the obligation of a contract, the enactment of which would violate Mo. Const. Art. I, § 13 and U.S.Const. Art. I, § 10. Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. Town of Carrollton, 346 Mo. 802, 142 S.W.2d 849, 855[12] (1940).

It is said in McQuillin Mun. Corp. (3rd Ed.), vol. 12, § 34.74a, pp.

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555 S.W.2d 29, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-electric-co-v-land-clearance-for-redevelopment-authority-mo-1977.