CITY of LAKE SAINT LOUIS v. CITY of O'FALLON

• Citation: 324 S.W.3d 756
• Decision Date: 26 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. SC 90790.,SC 90790.
• Parties: CITY OF LAKE SAINT LOUIS, Missouri, Appellant, v. CITY OF O'FALLON, Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

324 S.W.3d 756

CITY OF LAKE SAINT LOUIS, Missouri, Appellant,

v.CITY OF O'FALLON, Missouri, Respondent.

No. SC 90790.

Supreme Court of Missouri,En Banc.

Oct. 26, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

Jeffrey T. McPherson, Jay A. Summerville and Jonathan D. Valentino, Armstrong Teasdale LLP, St. Louis, for Lake St. Louis.

Kevin M. O'Keefe, Stephanie E. Karr, Curtis, Heintz, Garrett & O'Keefe PC, St. Louis, for O'Fallon.

LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge.

The city of Lake Saint Louis appeals the trial court's dismissal of its petition for declaratory judgment that certain disputed property is within its boundaries and that the city of O'Fallon's attempted annexation of it is invalid. O'Fallon filed a motion to dismiss on the basis that Lake St. Louis had no authority to seek a declaratory judgment because the sole mechanism for determining whether its annexation of the disputed property was proper is to have the attorney general or prosecuting attorney of St. Charles County file a quo warranto action. The trial court granted O'Fallon's motion to dismiss.

Lake St. Louis appeals, arguing that a municipality itself has the right to bring a declaratory judgment to determine its boundaries rather than being forced solely to rely on the discretion of the attorney general and the county's prosecuting attorney as to whether to bring a quo warranto action on the municipality's behalf.

[1] This Court agrees. While individuals are not authorized to bring a declaratory judgment action to determine a boundary dispute as to a municipality, this limitation does not apply to a suit brought by the affected municipality, school district or other public corporation itself. To the extent State ex inf. Sanders, ex rel. City of Lee's Summit v. City of Lake Lotawana, 220 S.W.3d 794 (Mo.App.2007), and State ex rel. Members of Bd. of Educ. of Everton R-III Sch. Dist. v. Members of Bd. of Educ. of Greenfield R-IV Sch. Dist., 572 S.W.2d 899 (Mo.App.1978), suggest to the contrary, they no longer should be followed. Accordingly, the judgment granting the motion to dismiss is reversed, and the case is remanded.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Lake St. Louis and O'Fallon are municipalities in St. Charles County. On March 26, 2009, Lake St. Louis filed a petition for declaratory judgment against O'Fallon in which Lake St. Louis alleged that, in 1982, it annexed certain property to the north of its prior boundary, making its northern boundary run along Interstate 70 in St. Charles County. The petition alleged that “O'Fallon disputes the northern boundary of Lake Saint Louis and claims to have subsequently annexed property, issued permits, and taken other actions within the boundary of Lake Saint Louis....” ¹ The petition did not state when O'Fallon undertook its allegedly improper annexation. It did aver that Lake St. Louis had a legally protectable interest in enforcing its ordinances, collecting and administering taxes, and protecting the rights of the city and its residents in the disputed area and asked the trial court to enter judgment declaring that the northern boundary of Lake St. Louis included the area that Lake St. Louis had annexed in 1982 and that O'Fallon had not legally annexed property within that boundary.

On April 30, 2009, O'Fallon filed a motion to dismiss in lieu of filing an answer. The motion asserted that Lake St. Louis was not entitled to bring a declaratory judgment action to determine its boundaries and that, in any event, the statute of limitations to do so had expired. The trial court granted O'Fallon's motion to dismiss without stating on which ground it ruled. Following a decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, this Court granted transfer. Mo. Const. Art. V, § 10.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

[2] [3] “[A] motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action is solely a test of the adequacy of the plaintiff's petition.” Reynolds v. Diamond Foods & Poultry, Inc., 79 S.W.3d 907, 909 (Mo. banc 2002). A court reviews the petition “in an almost academic manner, to determine if the facts alleged meet the elements of a recognized cause of action, or of a cause that might be adopted in that case.” Nazeri v. Mo. Valley Coll., 860 S.W.2d 303, 306 (Mo. banc 1993). In so doing, a court takes a plaintiff's averments as true and liberally grants plaintiff all reasonable inferences. It will not weigh the credibility or persuasiveness of facts alleged. Id. Accord, Reynolds, 79 S.W.3d at 909.

[4] [5] An appellate court reviews a trial court's grant of a motion to dismiss de novo. Lynch v. Lynch, 260 S.W.3d 834, 836 (Mo. banc 2008). It will consider only the grounds raised in the motion to dismiss in reviewing the propriety of the trial court's dismissal of a petition, and, in so doing, it will not consider matters outside the pleadings. Brennan By and Through Brennan v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo., 942 S.W.2d 432, 434 (Mo.App.1997). Here, the merits of Lake St. Louis's declaratory judgment claims regarding its boundaries were not a ground of the motion to dismiss and, therefore, are not reached on this appeal. See Rule 55.27(a). This Court considers solely whether the grounds raised in the motion supported dismissal.

III. A SCHOOL DISTRICT MAY BRING A DECLARATORY JUDGMENT ACTION TO DETERMINE ITS PROPER BOUNDARIES

Lake St. Louis argues that the filing of a declaratory judgment action is an appropriate mechanism by which a municipality can resolve a boundary dispute. O'Fallon disagrees, arguing that Lake St. Louis ultimately is seeking to oust O'Fallon from the contested land and, therefore, the exclusive remedy is through a writ of quo warranto. As it is undisputed that only the attorney general or a prosecuting or circuit attorney can bring an action in quo warranto, Rule 98.02, O'Fallon argues that Lake St. Louis has no authority to seek or obtain the relief it sets out in its petition.

For the reasons noted below, while O'Fallon is correct that individuals are not permitted to bring declaratory judgment actions seeking to determine boundaries or to oust a municipal or other public corporation from disputed territory, municipalities, school districts and other public corporations are permitted to bring such actions.

A. Individuals May Not Bring Quo Warranto or Declaratory Judgment Actions to Oust Another from Disputed Territory

[6] Rule 98.02 provides that, “(a) Proceedings in quo warranto shall be by a civil action in which the party seeking relief is relator and the person against whom such relief is sought is respondent, which action shall be brought in the name of the State of Missouri.” See also § 531.010 et seq., RSMo 2000. ² To bring an action in quo warranto the “attorney general, prosecuting attorney, or circuit attorney may file an information ex officio, by virtue of the power of his [or her] office without leave of court when such an action would serve the public interest.” State ex inf. Graham v. Hurley, 540 S.W.2d 20, 22 (Mo. banc 1976). The purpose of the action is to determine whether there has been a usurpation of “any office or franchise” and, if so, pray the court “oust” any such illegal holder. § 531.010; § 531.050.

[7] An action in quo warranto may be brought by the attorney general or prosecutor on behalf of the state directly or at the relation of another, Rule 98.02(b); Rule 98.04, including an individual who seeks to determine the legality of an annexation. ³

B. An Individual May Not File for Declaratory Relief to Resolve a Boundary Dispute

[8] “A declaratory judgment provides guidance to the parties, declaring their rights and obligations or otherwise governing their relationship,” Shipley v. Cates, 200 S.W.3d 529, 534 (Mo. banc 2006), and generally may be granted when a court is presented with:

(1) a justiciable controversy that presents a real, substantial, presently-existing controversy admitting of specific relief, as distinguished from an advisory decree upon a purely hypothetical situation; (2) a plaintiff with a legally protectable interest at stake, “consisting of a pecuniary or personal interest directly at issue and subject to immediate or prospective consequential relief;” (3) a controversy ripe for judicial determination; and (4) an inadequate remedy at law.

Mo. Soybean Ass'n v. Mo. Clean Water Comm'n, 102 S.W.3d 10, 25 (Mo. banc 2003).

Individuals sometimes have sought to bypass the prohibition on an individual bringing a quo warranto action by seeking the same relief in a suit for an injunction or for declaratory judgment. Spiking Sch. Dist. No. 71, DeKalb Cnty. v. Purported “ Enlarged Sch. Dist. R-II, DeKalb Cnty., Mo.”, 362 Mo. 848, 245 S.W.2d 13, 15 (1952), provides a good example. Certain individual residents of a school district sought a declaratory judgment that a new and enlarged school district was invalidly formed and that their previous school districts continued to exist.

In approving dismissal of their petition, this Court stated that “a declaratory judgment action is not available to the individual plaintiffs who are residents, patrons and taxpayers of the reorganized district” because “they are only indirectly affected by the lack of de jur[e] existence of the reorganized district and the attempted action by them is in the nature of a collateral attack.” Id. at 21. It prohibited such collateral attacks by individuals because individuals necessarily are only indirectly affected by whether a public or municipal corporation has a de jure existence. If one resident could bring suit, then all could, and “it is intolerable that, every time a city sues on an account, it must first establish its right to exist.” Id. (internal citations and quotations omitted).

[9] [10] For these reasons, “[t]he law is settled that when a public body has, under color of authority, assumed to exercise the powers of a public corporation of a kind recognized by law, so as to become at le[a]st a de facto corporation, the validity of its organization...