Hunter v. Roberts, 28731
| Decision Date | 20 April 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 28731,28731 |
| Citation | 267 S.W.2d 368 |
| Parties | HUNTER v. ROBERTS et al. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Louis Shifrin and Shifrin, Shifrin & Agatstein, St. Louis, for defendants-appellants.
Joseph T. Hersby, St. Louis, for respondent.
This is an action for damages growing out of the eviction of a tenant from premises subject to rent control pursuant to a certificate issued by the Area Rent Director upon alleged false and fraudulent representations of the defendant landlords regarding the purpose for which they sought possession of the premises.
The accommodations in question--a single rental unit of eleven rooms--comprised the second floor of premises known as 1801-03 Delmar Boulevard in the City of St. Louis, which had been acquired by defendant landlords, Paul Roberts and Fannye Roberts, his wife, in 1946. Plaintiff tenant, William C. Hunter, did not occupy the premises for his own living quarters, but instead equipped the rooms with carpets, furniture, and the like, and rented them out to others at a profit to himself. He paid defendants a monthly rental of $57.50, which was the maximum rent authorized by the Area Rent Office.
On October 5, 1950, defendants made application to the Area Rent Director for a certificate authorizing the institution of proceedings for plaintiff's eviction in order that they might undertake the remodeling and alteration of the premises into eight separate efficiency apartments.
The housing regulations in effect at the time provided that a certificate of eviction might be granted whenever a landlord sought in good faith to recover possession of his premises for the immediate purpose of substantially altering or remodeling the housing accommodations so as to create additional self-contained family dwelling units, provided the landlord had obtained such approval for the proposed alterations or remodeling as might be required by law, and provided further that such alterations or remodeling could not practically be made or done with the tenant in occupancy.
The application for the certificate had been prepared by one Eugene C. Walter, an employee of Cornet & Zeibig, Inc., a real estate concern which acted as defendants' agent, and was accompanied by a building permit which had been obtained from the proper authorities of the City of St. Louis.
On November 9, 1950, the Area Rent Director sustained defendant's application, subject only to the condition that any court proceeding to evict plaintiff should not be instituted before January 5, 1951. Thereafter defendants caused notice to be given plaintiff to vacate by February 1, 1951, and on January 29th their agent, Walter, wrote plaintiff inquiring whether they might expect possession by such date.
It appears that plaintiff's delay in surrendering the premises was due to the difficulty which his roomers were having in finding other quarters. As a matter of fact, it was not until the end of February, 1951, that he was able to turn the premises over to defendants. Meanwhile he had consulted Walter on two occasions, the first, after service of a notice to vacate, and the second, upon receipt of the letter of January 29th, and according to Walter's testimony had been given an extension of time.
Plaintiff testified that in all the proceedings leading up to his surrender of the premises he had believed and relied upon defendants' representations that they desired possession for the purpose of doing substantial altering and remodeling which they could not do so long as the premises were occupied.
Defendant's evidence was to the effect that after consultation between defendant Paul Roberts and a contractor named Wolf, the latter had submitted a written proposal in September, 1950, for remodeling the premises so as to convert what was a single unit of eleven rooms into eight separate units of two rooms each. The total cost of the proposed work was to be $6,700. According to Wolf's testimony, it was upon the basis of such proposal that he obtained the permit at City Hall which was attached to the application to the Area Rent Director for a certificate authorizing plaintiff's eviction.
Explaining why his initial proposal had not ripened into a contract, Wolf testified that it was himself, and not Roberts, who had refused to execute a contract, his reason being that he was unwilling to close the transaction until such time as he could see the interior of the premises. However he was again contacted by Roberts in March, 1951, after the premises had been vacated, and then drew up a contract which was entered into as of April 12, 1951, for the remodeling and alteration of the premises at a cost of $5,576. Continuing his account of what had transpired, Wolf testified that because of shortages and governmental restrictions he could not purchase the materials which were necessary for the performance of the contract, and consequently canceled the same and then on May 17, 1951, entered into an entirely new contract with Roberts which was limited solely to exterior work. The only interior work that was ever done under the prior contract had consisted of the removal of some gas pipes and window casings, although later, in July, 1951, Wolf did some necessary minor repairs to the interior, such as the bringing in of water and the taking down of certain plastering that would have been hazardous to an occupant.
Defendant Paul Roberts died on October 29, 1951, while this action was pending, and thereafter, on plaintiff's motion, it was ordered that his wife, Fannye Roberts, the executrix of his estate, be substituted as a party defendant in his stead. This meant that the action was thence-forth to be defended by Fannye Roberts in two separate capacities, the one, individually, and the other, as her deceased husband's personal representative.
Fannye Roberts testified that during her husband's lifetime, although she had known of his plans, she had had no part in the negotiations for the alteration and remodeling of the premises; and that after her husband's death, her lack of funds, coupled with ill-health, had prevented her from pursuing the matter until the spring of 1952 when she decided to renew the efforts to...
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...from which it reasonably and fairly may be inferred. St. Francis Mill Co. v. Sugg, 206 Mo. 148, 155, 104 S.W. 45, 47; Hunter v. Roberts, Mo.App., 267 S.W.2d 368, 372; Copeland v. American Cent. Ins. Co., 191 Mo.App. 435, 452, 177 S.W. 820, 825. But, it is equally true that, '(h)owever abhor......
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Wells v. Holiday Inns, Inc., 77-0426-CV-W-6.
...must be established to recover on a claim of fraud. Cantrell v. Superior Loan Co., 603 S.W.2d 627, 634 (Mo.App.1980); Hunter v. Roberts, 267 S.W.2d 368 (Mo.App.1954). Here, plaintiffs argue that the reservation confirmation slip was fraudulent because it did not disclose the possibility tha......
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Crues v. KFC Corp.
...the truth or falsity of a representation must be determined as of the time it was made and acted upon by the hearer, Hunter v. Roberts, 267 S.W.2d 368 (Mo.App.1954); Powers v. Shore, 248 S.W.2d 1 (Mo.1952), and that the statement at issue here was true at the time KFC made it and Crues acte......
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Cantrell v. Superior Loan Corp.
...an inference of fraud, it must rise above mere suspicion and point logically and convincingly to that conclusion." Hunter v. Roberts, 267 S.W.2d 368, 3723-4 (Mo.App.1954). This standard must be considered in the determination of whether appellant has proven all the elements necessary to est......