City of St. Louis v. Dorr

• Decision Date: 15 December 1896
• Citation: 37 S.W. 1108,136 Mo. 370
• Parties: The City of St. Louis, Plaintiff in Error, v. Dorr et al
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

37 S.W. 1108

136 Mo. 370

The City of St. Louis, Plaintiff in Error, v. Dorr et al

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

December 15, 1896

Error to St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction. -- Hon. James R Claiborne, Judge.

Affirmed.

W. C Marshall for plaintiff in error.

This ordinance regulation was clearly within the charter powers of the city to enact, and the city would have had the right to enact such a police regulation, even if the charter had been silent on the subject. Dillon on Municipal Corp., sec. 405 and cases cited in note; Tiedeman's Limitations of Police Power, p. 438, sec. 122 e., and cases cited in notes.

Louis A. Steber for defendants in error.

(1) The allegation of the complaint is the erection of a "brick building" without a permit from the building commissioner. The proof, on the part of the plaintiff, is that the defendants did have such a permit. The motion for judgment for defendants was therefore properly sustained. (2) The building permit (or license to build) conferred a contract right, which neither the city of St. Louis nor its building commissioner had a right to revoke, especially as large sums of money had already been expended in the erection of the building. Hannibal v. Guyott, 18 Mo. 515; State v. Andrews, 26 Mo. 171; Baker v. Railroad, 57 Mo. 265; House v. Montgomery, 19 Mo.App. 170; Gibson v. Association, 33 Mo.App. 165.

Burgess, J. Gantt, P. J., and Sherwood, J., concur.

OPINION

Burgess, J.

Action begun in the police court of the city of St. Louis by said city against defendants to recover a penalty or fine for the violation of an ordinance of said city.

Upon a trial had in said court defendants were successful. The case was then appealed by plaintiff to the court of criminal correction of said city, where defendants were again successful, judgment being rendered in their favor for costs; whereupon plaintiff sued out its writ of error from this court and brings the case here for review.

The charge against defendants is as follows:

"Lorenz Dorr and Henry L. Zeller, to the city of St. Louis, Dr.

"To five hundred dollars, for the violation of an ordinance of said city entitled, 'An ordinance in revision of the ordinances of the city of St. Louis and to establish new ordinance provisions for the government of said city,' being ordinance number 14,000, section 733, approved April 12, 1887.

"In this, to wit: In the city of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, on the twentieth day of January, 1894, and on divers other days and times prior thereto, the said Lorenz Dorr and Henry L. Zeller did then and there, as owners of certain premises on the south side of Washington boulevard, between Sarah street and Vandeventer avenue, and numbered 3924, did erect, construct and cause to be erected and constructed on said premises a certain brick building, and did do and cause to be done thereon certain work, without having first obtained a written permission so to do from the commissioner of public buildings in and for said city, and without then and there having such written permission from said commissioner, contrary to the ordinance in such case made and provided."

The ordinance which defendants were charged with violating is as follows:

"Every person who, as owner, agent, lessee, builder, architect or contractor, shall commence any building in the city of St. Louis or do or cause to be done any work on the same or build the same without first having procured a permit authorizing the same from the commissioner of public buildings, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than one or more than five hundred dollars for each offense, and every day on which said work shall be done on said building, shall be commenced or exist, without such permit, shall constitute a separate offense."

On the nineteenth of September, 1893, the defendants made written application to the commissioner of public buildings in the city of St. Louis for a permit to erect a building on the south side of Washington boulevard between Vandeventer avenue and Sarah street, stating that "the building to be used as a dwelling." On the day following a permit was issued by said commissioner to defendants to erect a brick building "to be used as a dwelling" to be constructed in accordance with the requirements of the law and ordinances regulating the erection, construction, altering and repairing of buildings in the city of St. Louis, according to the plans and specifications at that time approved by said commissioner.

The plans showed on the first story one room thirty feet wide with a driveway inside of the main walls of the building extending from north to south. The upper floors were shown to be divided into rooms. The value of the building is from $ 7,000 to $ 12,000; it is built of brick, stone, iron and...