City of Creve Coeur v. Creve Coeur Fire Protection Dist., 48872

• Decision Date: 12 March 1962
• Docket Number: No. 48872,No. 1,48872,1
• Citation: City of Creve Coeur v. Creve Coeur Fire Protection Dist., 355 S.W.2d 857 (Mo. 1962)
• Parties: CITY OF CREVE COEUR, a Municipal Corporation, Appellant, v. CREVE COEUR FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 857

355 S.W.2d 857

CITY OF CREVE COEUR, a Municipal Corporation, Appellant, v. CREVE COEUR FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent.

No. 48872.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

March 12, 1962.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en Banc Denied

April 9, 1962.

Wyne & Delworth, William H. Wyne, Jr., Clayton, for appellant.

T. Douglas Moore, Clayton, for respondent.

COIL, Commissioner.

The City of Creve Coeur has appealed from a judgment dismissing its petition seeking declaratory and other relief against the Creve Coeur Fire Protection District.

Plaintiff for its claim against defendant averred in substance and effect that it was a fourth class city and defendant was a fire protection district which had been created by decree of the St. Louis County Circuit Court dated December 30, 1958; that the district included the city and a portion of the unincorporated area of St. Louis County; that in February 1957 city contracted with St. Louis County Water Company whereby that company agreed to furnish and maintain and city agreed to pay for certain fire plugs $36 per plug per year for twenty years for the city's use for fire protection; that pursuant to the contract 213 fire plugs were installed (203 prior and 10 subsequent to defendant's formation) for which the city had paid and would continue to pay water company $36 per plug per year rental; that plaintiff had demanded that defendant assume the obligation to furnish the city fire protection, including the obligation to pay the fire plug rental for which the city was obligated, and had demanded that defendant reimburse the city for the rental money it had expended since defendant's formation; that since it came into existence defendant had used and had the benefit of the fire plugs in question; that defendant's refusal to pay city the yearly amount due water company for said plugs and to reimburse city for money it had expended to date, had and would continue to place an unfair tax burden on Creve Coeur residents; that a controversy exists between plaintiff and defendant as to the proper construction and interpretation of the statutes under which defendant was formed (Chapter 321, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.) in that plaintiff contends and defendant denies that defendant, under the circumstances, is primarily obligated to pay for the maintenance of said fire plugs.

Plaintiff sought a judgment declaring the rights and duties of the parties under the applicable law, to the effect that defendant, under the circumstances averred, was obligated to provide and maintain the fire plugs in question for fire protection within the city and was obligated to assume (as between plaintiff and defendant) plaintiff's present contractual obligation to the water company; and further, plaintiff sought a money judgment against defendant in an amount sufficient to reimburse city for the money (with interest) it had expended for the fire plugs since the date of defendant's formation, and such further relief as to the court might seem proper.

Defendant's motion to dismiss included, among other stated grounds, those here urged to sustain the trial court's action that the petition failed to state facts showing the existence of a justiciable controversy between the parties presently appropriate for judicial determination, and that plaintiff had failed to join a necessary party, viz., the St. Louis County Water Company.

The trial court sustained defendant's motion for the stated reasons that it lacked 'jurisdiction to grant the relief requested because it involves a matter for determination of the Board of Directors of the Fire Protection District as part of its police powers, and on the further grounds that Plaintiff's first amended petition fails to state sufficient facts to invoke this Court's jurisdiction for an adjudication of plaintiff's rights pursuant to Sec. 527.010 to 527.140, V.A.M.S.'

We have jurisdiction because the averments of the petition demonstrate that the amount in dispute exceeds $15,000.

Defendant reminds us of certain, and we are mindful of those and other, principles applicable to declaratory judgment actions, among which are these: A declaratory judgment action is a particularly appropriate method for determining a controversy involving the construction of a statute, but the construction so sought must be a necessary or desirable one in determining an actual controversy appropriate for judicial determination, City of Joplin v. Jasper County, 349 Mo. 441, 161 S.W.2d 411, 412(2-4); a declaratory judgment action properly may not be used to have adjudicated a hypothetical or speculative situation which may never come to pass, Transport Mfg. & Equipment Co. v. Toberman, Mo., 301 S.W.2d 801, 806(3, 4); M.F.A. Mutual Insurance Co. v. Hill, Mo., 320 S.W.2d 559, 564(8). In determining whether any petition, including one purporting to state a cause of action for a declaratory judgment, states a claim, its language is 'to be given a liberal construction, according the averments their reasonable and fair intendment--fair implication should be indulged from the facts stated. So considered, a petition should be held sufficient if its averments invoke substantive principles of law which entitle plaintiff to relief.' Wells v. Henry W. Kuhs Realty Co., Mo., 269 S.W.2d 761, 767(1), 47 A.L.R.2d 1038. In testing the sufficiency of a...