Whittaker v. Lafayette Realty & Investment Co.

196 S.W. 109, 197 Mo. App. 377, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 166
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 6, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 196 S.W. 109 (Whittaker v. Lafayette Realty & Investment Co.) 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
Whittaker v. Lafayette Realty & Investment Co., 196 S.W. 109, 197 Mo. App. 377, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 166 (Mo. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

BECKER, J.

The plaintiffs below, who constitute the board of trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden, filed their petition as trustees under the will of the late Henry Shaw, asking for an injunction whereby they sought to enforce the observance of a building line alleged to have been established by them under a decree of the circuit court entered in accordance with the mandate of the Supreme Court of Missouri, affecting, amongst other properties, a parcel or lot of ground purchased by the defendant company from plaintiffs, upon which lot defendant was erecting 'certain improvements which it was alleged violated the restriction as to the building line for said lot. From a dismissal of the said petition for an injunction, by the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, the plaintiffs appeal.

The record discloses that a large tract of ground lying between Grand Avenue and Kingshighway boulevard, in the city of St. Louis, was deeded by the late Henry Shaw to the plaintiffs as trustees, for the maintenance of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and under this will the trustees were not allowed to sell the property, but could only lease it. The leasing of the property as provided for in the will, was found to be impracticable' and an application was thereupon made to the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri for authority to sell the propertv, which court, in the case of Lackland, et al., v. Walker,“ Attorney General, 151 Mo. 210, 52 S. W. 414, authorized the trustees to make sale of the property. [382]*382The opinion in that case sets forth in full the decree which the circuit court of the city of St. Louis was ordered to enter in the case. The opinion of the Supreme Court provides, that, in order to carry out the purposes as expressed by Mr. Shaw in his will, namely, that the adjoining property to the Missouri Botanical Garden be made attractive and desirable for residences: “Such sales shall be made in such parcels or subdivisions, and subject to such restrictions as to building lines, costs, and character of structures to be erected thereon, and the use to which said property and improvements shall be put, as the sáid trustees may, from time to time, deem advisable. Said restrictions shall be framed with particular reference to insuring that said' property, when improved, will by its contiguity, be pleasant and attractive to the visitors and students of the Missouri Botanical Garden.”

And further provided: “The court doth adjudge and decree that the tracts so referred to and known as tracts numbers three (3) and four (4), respectively, be sold and aliened in fee, free from any of the trusts, restrictions and conditions in said will declared and set forth, and subject only to the terms, restrictions and conditions set forth in this decree or in the deed or deeds-of conveyance to be made thereof by virtue hereof.” (Italics ours).

The record discloses that the board, acting under this decree, made a plat of blocks numbered 5435 to 5439 and 5312, and included therein was the property in question in the instant case, namely lot 42 in block 5437; that said plat was duly approved by the Board of Public Improvements and duly recorded; that on the plat as recorded there is shown a building line designated as' such on the plat in each of said blocks, the same being twenty feet from the street line on all of the lots, including the lot in controversy, which is lot 42 in city block 5437, on the northwest corner of Lafayette and Spring avenues, in the city of St. Louis.

In December 1911, the board of trustees, appellants herein and plaintiffs below, deeded to the Lafayette [383]*383Realty & Investment Company, a corporation, defendant below and respondent here, certain inside lots in each of city blocks 5437 and 5438, the deeds for which property recited that they were made by the trustees under the direction of the Supreme Court’s opinion, supra, and contained a specific restriction as to a building line as represented on the recorded plat of said addition, but also contained certain other specific restrictions, as will later be set forth in this opinion. These said lots defendant company improved and thereafter sold, and its deeds of conveyance contained the same restrictions as to the building line and other covenants as were set forth in the deeds made by the said board of trustees to the defendant company.

On March 26, 1912, the said board of trustees deeded to the Lafayette Realty & Investment Company, the defendant below, the corner lot in controversy, the deed for which did not contain any recital as to any restrictions whatsoever, merely containing the recital, as in the deeds above mentioned, that the deed was maJe under the authority of the decree in the case of Lackland, et al., v. Walker, Attorney General, supra, and concluded with the following clause: “All subject to the restrictions and conditions now governing said property.” The Lafayette Realty & Investment Company thereupon proceeded to erect a three story apartment building on the corner, the front wall of the main building being twenty feet from the street line, but in connection with and as a part of said building they erected what are alleged to be sun porches projecting about ten feet from the front of the building and toward the street. The testimony shows that these porches were built up from the ground, were floored, provided with easements and windows, fitted up with steam radiators, and connected by doors with the corresponding upper floors. The testimony shows that the other property in that block has the front Aalls of the buildings all in conformity with the building line of twenty feet, but also are provided with ordinary entrance porches, extending in front of the building line. However, in none of them are there any such projected [384]*384enclosed additions as that made by the defendant on this corner lot.

Before the defendant had completed its building, the time as to which is immaterial for' the determination of this case, and at a time or soon after it became apparent that the projectments on the defendant’s lot, which were to be used as sun parlors or sleeping porches, were to be enclosed, the people who had bought property in the same block, from the Shaw board of trustees and also from the defendant company, filed their complaint with said board of trustees, who thereupon took up the complaint with the defendant company and upon their refusal to make any changes in their building, the Shaw board of trustees brought this suit for an injunction, reciting the foregoing fa cts.

The answer is, first, a denial that the property was subject to any restrictions as to building line; second, that the projecting sun parlors were not a violation of the building line; third, that'the plaintiffs were barred by laches^

The court upon a hearing of the case found for the defendant and dismissed the bill without filing any written memoranda. Motion for a new trial was duly filed and overruled, and thereupon an appeal was perfected to this court.

The trustees’ power and right to sell lots in this subdivision is based on the decree of the Supreme Court of Missouri in the case of Lackland, et al., v. Walker, Attorney General, 151 Mo. 210, 52 S. W. 414, which opinion sets out in full the decree ordered therein to be entered by the circuit court, in compliance with the mandate issued. The decree contains the following paragraph: “Second.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 S.W. 109, 197 Mo. App. 377, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whittaker-v-lafayette-realty-investment-co-moctapp-1917.