Jetz Service Co., Inc. v. Chamberlain

• Decision Date: 16 July 1991
• Docket Number: No. WD,WD
• Citation: 812 S.W.2d 946
• Parties: JETZ SERVICE COMPANY, INC., Appellant, v. Louise B. CHAMBERLAIN, Respondent. 43724.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 946

812 S.W.2d 946

JETZ SERVICE COMPANY, INC., Appellant, v. Louise B. CHAMBERLAIN, Respondent.

No. WD 43724.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Western District.

July 16, 1991.

Ronald G. Byers, James O. Swaney, Jr., Newhouse, Byers & Swaney, P.C., Independence, for appellant.

Dale K. Irwin, Slough, Connealy, Irwin & Madden, Kansas City, for respondent.

Before KENNEDY, P.J., and SHANGLER and ULRICH, JJ.

ULRICH, Judge.

Jetz Service Company, Inc., (Jetz) appeals the trial court's judgment in favor of Louise Chamberlain entered following a bench trial. Jetz sued Ms. Chamberlain claiming she breached a lease agreement that provided for the installation and maintenance of laundry equipment at an apartment building owned by Ms. Chamberlain. On appeal, Jetz contends that the trial court erred by (1) failing to, sua sponte, disqualify itself due to prejudice; (2) determining that Ms. Chamberlain had properly canceled the lease; and (3) receiving into evidence without sufficient foundation a letter Ms. Chamberlain allegedly sent to Jetz. The judgment is affirmed.

Jetz entered into a five-year lease with the owner of The Royal Apartments, a twenty-two unit apartment complex located in Kansas City, Missouri. Pursuant to the agreement, the owner of The Royal Apartments permitted Jetz to install and maintain coin-operated laundry equipment for use by the apartments' residents. In return, Jetz was obligated to pay the owner fifty percent of all receipts from the coin-operated laundry machines.

The lease agreement also contained an automatic renewal clause. The automatic renewal clause provided as follows:

This agreement shall be automatically renewed for the same period of time unless canceled in writing by either party, sixty days prior to its expiration.

The original lease was effective March 20, 1982. According to the terms of the lease the automatic renewal clause would become effective March 20, 1987.

Louise Chamberlain signed a contract to purchase The Royal Apartments on February 6, 1986. Pursuant to the purchase contract, the seller was obligated to provide Ms. Chamberlain copies of all property leases and agreements pertaining to The Royal Apartments within seven days after the contract was signed. Ms. Chamberlain became the owner of The Royal Apartments by a warranty deed dated February 27, 1986.

Ms. Chamberlain purportedly sent a letter dated January 10, 1987, to Jetz in an effort to notify the company that she intended to replace its laundry service. The January 10, 1987, letter stated in part:

This is notice that I will be replacing your laundry services at 3240-44 Harrison. If your machines are left at this location, it is done so on a day-to-day agreement. If you cannot agree to these conditions, please notify me so your machines can be removed.

Ms. Chamberlain offered into evidence at trial the letter as exhibit 15, and Jetz's attorney stated he had "no objection."

On September 24, 1987, Ms. Chamberlain entered into a new lease agreement for coin-operated laundry equipment at The Royal Apartments with Macke Laundry Service. On October 23, 1987, Ms. Chamberlain informed Jetz of the new agreement with Macke and told Jetz that its equipment should be removed by October 28, 1987, or the equipment would be disconnected. On October 28, 1987, an employee of Jetz discovered that the company's laundry equipment at The Royal Apartments had been disconnected.

Jetz filed suit against Ms. Chamberlain alleging that she breached the parties' lease and sought specific performance or monetary damages. Following the bench trial, the court addressed the attorneys and parties in open court. During this exchange, the court stated to the parties as follows:

I think the parties should be advised that most Courts including this one find automatic renewals in leases, especially for extended periods, in this instance, five years are looked at with a great deal of repugnancy because there is no overt action to put that obligation for a five-year term into effect; and if there's any basis not to enforce them, they will never be enforced. I would advise you now that they are not good clauses to rely on. You will be well advised to make some effort to bring to the attention of the party the renewal.

The court then pronounced judgment in favor of Ms. Chamberlain.

For point (1), Jetz contends that the trial court erred in failing to, sua sponte, disqualify itself from this case. Jetz contends that the trial court's statement, set forth above, reflects the trial court's prejudice against Jetz. Jetz claims that it was denied a fair trial because the trial court was prejudiced.

Missouri courts are very protective of the notion that parties are entitled to an impartial arbiter. See State v. Lovelady, 691 S.W.2d 364, 365 (Mo.App.1985). The law is concerned not only with the judge's actual impartiality but also the public's perception of the judge's impartiality. Id. "Where a judge's freedom from bias or his prejudgment of an issue is called into question, the inquiry is no longer whether he actually is prejudiced; the inquiry is whether an onlooker might on the basis of objective facts reasonably question whether he was so." Id. Additionally, the trial judge's duty to recuse himself when impropriety or the appearance of impropriety exists does not depend on waiver of that issue by the parties. See State ex rel. Division of Family Services v. Oatsvall, 612 S.W.2d 447, 452 (Mo.App.1981); Ham v. Wenneker, 609 S.W.2d 240, 241 (Mo.App.1980).

However, not every prejudice presents legally sufficient grounds to disqualify a judge from his duty to hear a case. State ex rel. Wesolich v. Goeke, 794 S.W.2d 692, 697 (Mo.App.1990). The court in Goeke stated:

If "lack of bias" or "impartiality" are defined to mean the total absence of preconceptions in the mind of a judge, "then no one has ever had a fair trial and no one ever will. The human mind is no blank piece of paper." In re J.P. Linahan, Inc., 138 F.2d 650, 651-52 (2nd Cir.1943).

Id.

"Prejudice" that requires disqualifying a judge, "is the attitude of personal enmity towards the party or in favor of the adverse party to the other's detriment." Id. However, the trial judge's views or opinions regarding issues of law are not sufficient grounds for disqualifying the judge. Id. See also Johnston v. Citizens Bank & Trust Co., 659 F.2d 865, 869 (8th Cir.1981); Papa v. New Haven Federation of Teachers, 186 Conn. 725, 444 A.2d 196, 205 (1982); In re Grblny's Estate, 147 Neb. 117, 22 N.W.2d 488, 495 (1946). The court in Capps v. Capps, 715 S.W.2d 547 (Mo.App.1986), held:

Of necessity, as a jury waived trial progresses, a trial judge must consider and possibly formulate tentative opinions concerning such matters as the probative value of certain testimony, the credibility of certain witnesses, what law should govern particular issues inherent in the trial, and finally must decide who, if anyone, is entitled to prevail therein on the law and the facts. In so doing he is exercising his judicial trial function, and although while so doing he may commit legal error or be mistaken as to his conclusions of law or fact, he is not as a result to be successfully charged with prejudice....

Id. at 553 (quoting Pippas v. Pippas, 330 S.W.2d 132, 135 (Mo.App.1960)).

In the present case, the trial court's statement that most courts viewed leases with automatic renewal clauses "with a great deal of repugnancy" merely reflects an expression of the court's opinion regarding the law. Regardless of whether the court's opinion concerning the law is accurate, his opinion is not "prejudice" and not grounds for disqualification. Point (1) is denied.

For point (2) on appeal, Jetz contends the trial court erred in determining that Ms. Chamberlain properly canceled the parties' lease. In particular, Jetz claims that at trial Ms. Chamberlain failed to provide a sufficient foundation to create a legal presumption that it received exhibit 15, the letter of cancellation purportedly sent to Jetz on January 10, 1987. Jetz also claims that exhibit 15 is vague and equivocal and, therefore, insufficient to constitute a valid cancellation of the parties' lease. Finally, Jetz argues that its undisputed evidence overcame any presumption that it received exhibit 15.

At oral argument before this court, Jetz...