Elam v. City of St. Ann

• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: SATZ
• Citation: Elam v. City of St. Ann, 784 S.W.2d 330 (Mo. App. 1990)
• Decision Date: 30 January 1990
• Docket Number: No. 55609,55609
• Parties: Jimmy H. ELAM, et al., Plaintiffs/Respondents, v. CITY OF ST. ANN, Defendant/Appellant.

Page 330

784 S.W.2d 330

Jimmy H. ELAM, et al., Plaintiffs/Respondents, v. CITY OF ST. ANN, Defendant/Appellant.

No. 55609.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Eastern District,

Division Three.

Jan. 30, 1990.

Shulamith Simon, St. Louis, for defendant/appellant.

Robert J. Koster, St. Louis, for plaintiffs/respondents.

SATZ, Presiding Judge.

This is a declaratory judgment action in which plaintiffs, Dr. Jimmy H. Elam and his wife, challenge the reasonableness of the residential zoning of their property located at 10446 St. Charles Rock Road (Rock Road) in defendant City of St. Ann (City). The trial court held the residential zoning was unconstitutionally unreasonable in violation of the due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 10 of the Missouri Constitution. The court ordered the City to rezone the property to a commercial classification. We reverse.

The area in question is shown in the following schematic diagram taken from the City's Exhibit O and not drawn to scale.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

Dr. Elam has practiced optometry at the Rock Road address since he and his wife purchased the property in 1981. That year, the Elams and the owners of the three other residentially zoned lots on their block sought to have all four parcels rezoned commercial. The City denied the request for rezoning and brought suit to enjoin the Elams from continuing to use their property for Dr. Elam's office. The trial court denied the City's request for an injunction and dismissed the City's petition on the grounds the City had not exhausted its administrative remedies. The court also stated the zoning ordinance the Elams were accused of violating deprived optometrists of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 2 of the Missouri Constitution. It is questionable whether the Elams made a due process challenge to the reasonableness of their property's zoning at that time. They made no claim the residential zoning restriction constituted a taking of the property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 26 of the Missouri Constitution. ¹

This Court reversed the trial court's dismissal of the City's petition, found the ordinance did not violate the Elams' equal protection rights and remanded the cause for further proceedings. City of St. Ann v. Elam, 661 S.W.2d 632 (Mo.App.1983). On remand, the parties stipulated to the facts presented in their briefs to this Court and raised no new issues in their pleadings. Specifically, the Elams again did not challenge the reasonableness of the zoning ordinance on due process grounds nor did they claim the ordinance constituted a taking of their property. In November, 1985, the trial court "adopted" this Court's opinion as its own and entered judgment for the City. The Elams did not appeal this judgment.

The City subsequently refused the Elams' petition for a special use permit and also refused their second request for rezoning. The Elams then instituted this declaratory judgment action, attacking the reasonableness of zoning their property residential under the due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 10 of the Missouri Constitution and alleging this zoning constituted a taking of their property without just compensation in violation of the "taking" clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article 1, Section 26 of the Missouri Constitution. ² The trial court held the residential zoning of the Elams' property violated their due process rights under both the U.S. and Missouri Constitutions.

On appeal, the City argues that two principles bar the Elams from challenging the reasonableness of their property's zoning: (1) failure to file a compulsory counterclaim, Rule 55.32(a) and (2) res judicata.

The concepts of res judicata, or claim preclusion, and compulsory counterclaim are neither identical nor mutually exclusive. In fact, they overlap to the extent that one commentator refers to the compulsory counterclaim as a form of "claim preclusion by rule". Vestal, Res Judicata/Preclusion, 131 (1969). Since the doctrine of res judicata is completely dispositive of the "due process" reasonableness issue presented here, we need not engage in a separate compulsory counterclaim analysis.

Res judicata "precludes the same parties ... from relitigating the same cause of action." American Polled Hereford Assoc. v. City of Kansas City, 626 S.W.2d 237, 241 (Mo.1982). A former judgment operates as a bar "not only as to all matters which were raised, but also as to all defenses which could have been raised." U.S. v. Lufcy, 329 Mo. 1224, 49 S.W.2d 8, 14 (1932). In the City's prior suit, in which the City sought to enjoin the Elams from operating an optometry office at the Rock Road address, the Elams could have challenged the reasonableness of their property's residential zoning either by an affirmative defense or by a counterclaim for a declaratory judgment. The reasonableness of the residential zoning thus became res judicata in November of 1985, when, on remand, the trial court issued the injunction requested by the City.

However, res judicata " 'extends only to the facts in issue as they existed at the time the judgment was rendered, and does not prevent a reexamination of the same questions between the same parties where in the interval the facts have changed or new facts have occurred which may alter the legal rights or relations of litigants.' " City of Hardin v. Norborne Land Drainage Dist., 360 Mo. 1112, 232 S.W.2d 921, 925 (1950). Thus, the Elams are precluded from contesting the reasonableness of their property's zoning based exclusively on facts which existed in November, 1985. These facts include: 1) a commercially zoned lot immediately west of the Elam's property, on which a fast food restaurant, Burger King, is located; 2) noise and debris from the fast food restaurant, as well as the glare of car lights which shine on the Elam's building as cars pass through the restaurant's drive-through window; 3) gas fumes and traffic noise from the Rock Road, an arterial thoroughfare. ³ We must, however, consider the Elams' current claim on its merits to the extent that facts relevant to the reasonableness of their property's zoning changed between November 1985, the date of the former trial, and the date of the trial below, July, 1988.

The basis for requiring zoning to be reasonable and the criteria for determining the zoning's reasonableness are well known. The due process clauses of both the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 10 of the Missouri Constitution, require zoning to bear a substantial relationship to health, safety, morals or the public welfare. Flora Realty & Investment Co. v. City of Ladue, 362 Mo. 1025, 246 S.W.2d 771, 778 (banc 1952), appeal dismissed in 344 U.S. 802, 73 S.Ct. 41, 97 L.Ed. 626 (1952). The constitutional standard is essentially one of reasonableness. Vatterott v. City of Florissant, 462 S.W.2d 711, 713 (Mo.1971).

Zoning may be unreasonable on its face or as applied to a particular tract of land. In Missouri, to determine whether the zoning is reasonably related to achieving some legitimate purpose as applied to a particular tract of land, we not only determine whether application of the zoning is substantially related to the alleged purpose of the zoning, but we also consider the private detriment caused by the application. See Huttig v. City of Richmond Heights, 372 S.W.2d 833 (Mo.1963) and Loomstein v. St. Louis County, 609 S.W.2d 443 (Mo.App.1980). Thus, in Missouri, even when zoning does substantially relate to the public welfare, the zoning may be considered unconstitutionally unreasonable if its demonstrated detriment to private interests outweighs the public benefit from retaining it. See Huttig, 372 S.W.2d at 842.

Since zoning and refusal to rezone are legislative acts, Erigan Co. v. Town of Grantwood Village, 632 S.W.2d 495, 496 (Mo.App.1982), we review de novo any challenges to their validity. Clarkson Valley Estates v. Village of Clarkson Valley, 630 S.W.2d 151, 153, n. 1 (Mo.App.1982); see generally City of Town & Country v. St. Louis County, 657 S.W.2d 598, 605 (Mo. banc 1983) and Binger v. City of Independence, 588 S.W.2d 481, 486 (Mo. banc 1979). Zoning ordinances are presumed to be valid. This presumption is rebuttable, and the challenger bears the burden of proving an ordinance's unreasonableness as applied to his property. Vatterott, supra, 462 S.W.2d at 713.

Any uncertainty about the reasonableness of a zoning regulation must be resolved in the government's favor: if the issue is at least fairly debatable, the reviewing court may not substitute its opinion for that of the zoning authority which enacted the challenged ordinance. Vatterott, supra, 462 S.W.2d at 713. ⁴ The analytical framework for reviewing zoning decisions is well settled:

First, the court reviews the property owner's evidence to determine whether the owner has rebutted the presumption that continuation of the present zoning was reasonable; and second, the court reviews the government's evidence to determine whether such evidence makes the continuance of the present zoning fairly debatable.

Despotis v. City of Sunset Hills, 619 S.W.2d 814, 820. (Mo.App.1981).

In the present case, the Elams must overcome not only the presumption of the residential zoning's reasonableness, but also the preclusion effect of the earlier judgment for the City. The November, 1985, judgment enjoining the Elams from using their property for commercial purposes means, in law, that the residential zoning was at least fairly debatable at the time that judgment was rendered. We must therefore accept that the residential zoning did substantially promote the public welfare and that the public...