Sho-Me Power Corp. v. City of Mountain Grove

• Decision Date: 23 March 1971
• Docket Number: No. 9044,SHO-ME,9044
• Citation: 467 S.W.2d 109
• Parties: POWER CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF MOUNTAIN GROVE, Missouri, a municipal corporation, et al., Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 109

467 S.W.2d 109

SHO-ME POWER CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF MOUNTAIN GROVE, Missouri, a municipal corporation et al., Defendants-Respondents.

No. 9044.

Springfield Court of Appeals, Missouri.

March 23, 1971.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Supreme Court Denied

April 28, 1971.

Application to Transfer Denied June 14, 1971.

Gregory Stockard, Jefferson City, E. C. Curtis, Farrington, Curris & Strong, Springfield, for plaintiff-appellant.

James E. Miller, B. H. Clampett, Daniel, Clampett, Ellis, Rittershouse & Dalton, Springfield, for defendants-respondents.

WILLIAM M. KIMBERLIN, Special Judge.

This is an action to enjoin the respondents, City of Mountain Grove, Missouri, Curt Anderson, its Mayor, and the City Council from selling or otherwise negotiating electric light revenue bonds previously voted by the electorate, and to enjoin the residents from negotiating for the purchase or the construction of an electric transmission and distribution system within the City of Mountain Grove, Missouri. The parties will be referred to in this opinion as they were in the trial court. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiff's petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The trial court sustained the motion and dismissed the petition with prejudice. This appeal ensued. Since the sufficiency of the petition is in issue, the allegations will be stated at length.

The petition stated that the plaintiff was a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the Rural Electric Co-operative Laws of the State of Missouri; that the defendant, City of Mountain Grove, Missouri, was a municipal corporation and city of the third class; that the remaining defendants were the mayor and city council of said city. The petition alleged that in January of 1965, the City, by ordinance, duly approved by the electors of the city, granted a franchise to plaintiff to construct, operate and maintain an electrical transmission system within the corporate limits of said city for a period of fifteen years and that said franchise is still in full force and effect; that under date of February 1, 1965, the defendant, city, entered into two separate contracts with the plaintiff obligating itself to purchase from plaintiff for a period of fifteen years thereafter, all of the electrical energy which might be necessary for and used in the operation of the municipal pumping system and the lighting of the streets and alleys of the city. Since that time, plaintiff has owned and operated and is now operating an electrical transmission and distribution system within the corporate limits of the city, and has carried out its obligation under the contract by supplying the inhabitants of said city with electricity; that on November 28, 1967, the electorate of the city voted bonds for the purpose of 'purchasing or constructing' an electric light distribution system for said city; that the city, through its officials, contracted for the sale of said bonds and are threatening to sell the bonds for the purpose of purchasing or constructing an electric light distribution system; that by entering into the said contracts, the city elected to purchase from plaintiff all of its requirements for electrical current for the full term of said contracts and, therefore, the sale of the bonds and the purchase or construction of electric distribution system would, by reason of the election of the city to exercise its statutory power to purchase from plaintiff all of its requirements for electrical current, be illegal and void and in violation of the constitutional and statutory powers of the city.

It is further alleged that § 88.613 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., which authorizes the city to erect and operate electric light works, does not grant to the city the power to erect and operate an electric light works at the same time the city is bound by contract to purchase its electrical needs from another company and, therefore, the city has no power to purchase or erect its own electric light works so long as its contracts with the plaintiff are in force and effect; that if § 88.613, supra, is construed to grant to the city the power to purchase or erect its own electrical transmission and distribution system at the same time it is under contract to purchase its electrical needs from the plaintiff, such contracts would be thereby impaired in violation of art. 1, § 10 of the Constitution of Missouri, V.A.M.S., and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.

It is further alleged the procedure of calling the election and submitting the proposition to the voters was not authorized by the statutes of Missouri and the ordinance authorizing same is unlawful and void; that from and after granting to the plaintiff the franchise and after the date of the bond elections, the city, through its officials, on repeated occasions requested and required the plaintiff to make changes and improvements in the plaintiff's electrical distribution system well knowing that the defendant, City of Mountain Grove intended to construct its own electrical distribution system and to operate the same in competition with plaintiff, all of which requests and requirements were performed by plaintiff at great expense; that the defendant, city, is now estopped to construct an electrical distribution system as long as the plaintiff is continuing to operate such a system in said city; that plaintiff will suffer irreparable injury and damage if the city carries out its proposal and that the plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law.

The plaintiff advanced several theories of recovery in the trial court. However, it has narrowed the controversy to only one issue. Plaintiff in its reply brief at page 5 states as follows:

'Let us again set the record straight. We do not rely in this case upon any sort of implied agreement not to construct a competing plant. We do not rely upon an implied election not to compete. We do rely upon the lack of statutory power in the defendant city to build a plant while under contract with plaintiff for all its municipal needs. This question is discussed to the best of our ability in our brief. The discussion, argument and authorities cited stand totally unanswered before this court.'

Upon oral argument, the plaintiff reiterated this contention. Hence, we will not labor the cases cited in the briefs dealing with implied limitations of power. We are now concerned solely with the question of whether the City of Mountain Grove, by reason of the contracts with plaintiff has exhausted its statutory power, or by reason of its conduct is estopped to erect and construct an electrical system of its own under § 88.613, supra.

Plaintiff, in its brief, frankly conceded that it can point to no Missouri authority specifically holding that § 88.613, supra, will be construed as plaintiff contends that it should be construed; that the question here involved is simply one of first impression in this state as at no previous time has it been asserted that the power to contract for electricity and the power to produce electricity are alternate powers; that when the city contracts for the purchase of electricity, it has elected its method of securing the service and may not during the terms of the contract produce electricity on its own.

The contention of the plaintiff requires an interpretation of § 88.613, supra. It provides as follows:

'1. The council may provide for and regulate the lighting of streets and the erection of lamp posts, poles and lights therefor, and shall have power to make contracts with any person, association or corporation for the lighting of the streets and other public places of the city with gas, electricity or otherwise; provided, that no such contract shall have any legal force until the same shall have been ratified by a two-thirds majority of the qualified voters of said city, voting at an election held for that purpose.

'2. The council shall have the right, also, to erect, maintain and operate gas works, electric light works or light works of any other kind or name, and to erect lamp posts, electric light poles, or any other apparatus or appliances necessary to light the streets, avenues, alleys or other public places, and to supply private lights for the use of the inhabitants of the city and its suburbs, and to regulate the same, and to prescribe and regulate the rates to be paid by consumers * * *.'

In interpreting the above statute, several rules of statutory construction must be considered. '(T)he rules or statutory construction require that we give every word, phrase, and sentence in the statute some meaning, unless it is in conflict with legislative intent. Anderson v. Deering, Mo.App., 318 S.W.2d 383; * * * We are not to presume that the legislature intended to use superfluous or meaningless words in a statute.' Bussmann Manufacturing Co. v. Industrial...