Lake St. Louis Community Ass'n v. Ringwald
| Decision Date | 29 March 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 43309,43309 |
| Parties | LAKE SAINT LOUIS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Patricia RINGWALD, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Lester W. Duggan, Jr., St. Peters, for defendant-appellant.
Frederick W. Drakesmith, Cundiff, Turken & Londoff, St. Charles, for plaintiff-respondent.
Defendant Patricia Ringwald appeals from a judgment against her in the amount of $2,226.50 plus costs, for assessments previously unpaid as to defendant's property. The defendant acquired title by warranty deed to a lot in Lake Saint Louis Subdivision in St. Charles County in 1969. The deed contained a provision, subjecting the property to Declarations of Covenants and Restrictions established by plaintiff, a community association authorized by the covenants to make and collect assessments against owners of property in the subdivision. The covenants provided for annual assessments on the basis of lot and living unit type, and for increases as voted on by the association members. Plaintiff Lake Saint Louis Community Association brought an action against defendant for the balance due for the period from 1972 through 1979. For the reasons set out below, we affirm the trial court's award of $2,226.50, representing assessments, interest, and attorneys' fees plus costs.
With commendable candor, defendant conceded in her brief that "there is no real dispute with respect to the Plaintiff's general authority to make and collect assessments according to certain recorded covenants and restrictions pertaining to certain property in Lake Saint Louis." She contends, however, that plaintiff failed to show by substantial evidence that plaintiff's authority extended to Lake Saint Louis, Plat 6, which is where her property is located. The warranty deed to defendant, indeed, describes her property as "Lot 110 of Lake Saint Louis Plat 6 according to plat thereof recorded ... in the office of the Recorder of Deeds in St. Charles County, Missouri," but it also provides that it is subject "to easements and Declarations of Covenants and Restrictions of record ..." The trial court properly looked to plaintiff's exhibit four (the Declarations) which recited that the Lake Saint Louis Estates Company had caused to be incorporated the Lake Saint Louis Community Association (plaintiff herein) as a not-for-profit corporation. The function of the association was to establish and develop a residential community subject to the covenants and restrictions set forth therein. The Declarations were recorded in the office of the St. Charles County Recorder of Deeds on July 7, 1967, some two years prior to defendant's acquisition of her property.
The Declarations contemplated additions to the land referred to therein, "provided that the land so added shall at that time be bound by all of the terms of this Declaration ..." Among the terms was the schedule of annual assessments which defendant admittedly had not paid and for which plaintiff sought recovery, both as originally levied and as subsequently increased by vote of the landowners within the development.
The defendant's contention that the trial court erred in finding a nexus between the property referred to in exhibit 4 and defendant's property is not well taken. The defendant's deed showed the...
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...with sufficient postage with the correct address of the addressee recipient and was placed in the mail. Lake St. Louis Community Ass'n v. Ringwald, 652 S.W.2d 158, 160 (Mo.App.1983); Hood v. M.F.A. Mut. Ins. Co., 379 S.W.2d 806, 809 (Mo.App.1964). AMI offered no testimony or documentary pro......
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...Mut. Life Ins. Co., 155 S.W.2d 324, 329 (Mo.App.1941); Shelter Mut. Ins. Co. v. Flint, 837 S.W.2d at 528; Lake St. Louis Community Assn. v. Ringwald, 652 S.W.2d 158, 160 (Mo.App.1983); Price v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 530 S.W.2d 249, 252 (Mo.App.1975). Home maintains that nothing in Mr. Kras......
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...and stamped envelope was placed in the ordinary mail creates a rebuttable presumption of delivery. Lake St. Louis Community Assoc. v. Ringwald, 652 S.W.2d 158, 160 (Mo.App.1983). The record before us contains both a photocopy of the stamped envelope addressed to the husband and the court cl......
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Hughes v. Estes, 16220
...handled a large volume of mail so as to excuse direct proof of mailing within the doctrine followed in Lake St. Louis Community Ass'n v. Ringwald, 652 S.W.2d 158 (Mo.App.1983). They also contend there was insufficient evidence of " 'settled custom and usage of [the sender's] office, regular......