St. Louis Gunning Advertisement Co. v. City of St. Louis

• Citation: 235 Mo. 99,137 S.W. 929
• Parties: ST. LOUIS GUNNING ADVERTISEMENT CO. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS et al.
• Decision Date: 09 May 1911
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

137 S.W. 929

235 Mo. 99

ST. LOUIS GUNNING ADVERTISEMENT CO. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

May 9, 1911.

Rehearing Denied June 7, 1911.^†

1. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (§ 602)—POLICE POWER—BILLBOARDS—ALLEGATION OF AUTHORITY —CHARTER.

Under Charter art. 3, § 26, par. 5, providing that the city may license, tax, and regulate all businesses, trades, avocations or professions, which after enumerating many other things, concludes with the provision "to license, tax, regulate or suppress all occupations, professions and trades not heretofore enumerated of whatever name and character," and paragraph 14, providing that the city may pass all ordinances not inconsistent with the provisions of its charter or laws of the state necessary in maintaining peace, good government, health, and welfare of the city, its trade, commerce, and manufactures, the City of St. Louis had power to pass ordinances regulating the height, location, and materials used to construct billboards, sky signs, and house signs where such ordinances are necessary for the maintenance of the peace, safety, health, good government, and general welfare of the city.

2. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (§ 625)—CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (§ 278)—POLICE POWER — BILLBOARDS — REASONABENESS OF REGULATIONS.

St. Louis Ordinance No. 22,022, § 177, providing that no billboard shall exceed 14 feet in height, and that every such board shall have an open space of at least 4 feet from the lower edge to the ground, and that none shall be nearer than 6 feet to any building or side line of any lot, or nearer than 2 feet to another billboard, and that no billboard shall exceed 500 feet in area or approach the street line nearer than 15 feet, is not in conflict either with Const. Mo. art. 2, § 30, or Const. U. S. Amend. 14, both prohibiting the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, for this ordinance is not on its face unreasonable, and in view of the fact that billboards are liable to be blown down and injure pedestrians, thus rendering the city liable for damages, that bill-boards gather refuse and paper, rendering them liable to spread conflagrations, and that they are used as dumping places for refuse, as public privies, and as hiding places for criminals.

3. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (§ 208) — CLASS LEGISLATION — REGULATION OF CERTAIN TRADES—BILLBOARDS.

An ordinance regulating billboards, sky signs, and house signs, which defines billboards as structures erected for the display of posters for advertising, and which prohibits, except under certain conditions, the building of those structures without prohibiting the building of similar ones not used for advertising purposes, is not class legislation.

4. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (§ 625)—ORDINANCES —VALIDITY—REASONABLENESS.

In determining the reasonableness or unreasonablenesss of ordinances regulating buildings in a city, all ordinances must be held valid save where unreasonableness appears on the face of the ordinance, or where the ordinance is clearly shown to be unreasonable.

5. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (§ 278) — EMINENT DOMAIN (§ 2)—TAKING FOR PRIVATE USE— DUE PROCESS OF LAW — POLICE POWER — REGULATION OF BILLBOARDS.

St. Louis Ordinance No. 22,022, regulating the size, construction, and placing of billboards, is not unconstitutional, under Const. Mo. art. 2, § 20, prohibiting the taking of private property for private use, or under Const. U. S. Amends. 5 and 14, and Const. Mo. art. 2, § 30, prohibiting that any person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

6. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (§ 211) — EQUAL PROTECTION OF LAW—BILLBOARDS—REGULATION.

St. Louis Ordinance No. 22,022, regulating billboards, sky signs and house signs, does not deny the owners of those structures equal protection of law because it does not regulate similar structures, for there are no similar structures.

7. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (§ 63) — ORDINANCES — REASONABLENESS — PRESUMPTIONS.

A municipal ordinance fixing the fees for permits for the erection of buildings and other structures must, in the absence of anything to the contrary, be presumed to be reasonable and valid.

Graves, J., dissenting.

In Banc. Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

Suit by the St. Louis Gunning Advertisement Company against the City of St. Louis and others. From the judgment awarding defendants a peremptory injunction, defendants appeal. Reversed.

Lambert E. Walther and Charles P. Williams, for appellants. Bishop & Cobbs and Morton Jourdan, for respondent.

WOODSON, J.

The following opinion, delivered by me in Division No. 1, reversing the judgment of the circuit court, is adopted by the court in banc, with the following additional paragraph, to wit:

We do not wish to be understood as passing upon the validity of that section of the ordinance under consideration, prescribing the license fees to be charged for the permission to erect billboards, house signs, etc., for the reason that it is not properly before this court for determination. All concur, except GRAVES, J., who dissents in a separate opinion.

The purpose of this suit was to test the validity of a certain ordinance, enacted by the municipal assembly of the city of St Louis, in so far as it purports to regulate and control signs and billboards within the limits thereof, and to enjoin the city and its officers from enforcing it against the plaintiff. Said ordinance is numbered 22,022, and the parts thereof which are challenged by this suit are sections 2, 14, 81, 177, and 178. Said sections read as follows:

"Sec. 2. Permit Required.—No work, except minor repairs, shall be done upon any structure, building or shed in the city of St. Louis without a permit from the commissioner of public buildings. Before proceeding with the erection, enlargement, alteration, repair or removal of any building in the city, a permit for such erection, enlargement, alteration, repair or removal shall first be obtained by the owner or his agent from the commissioner of public buildings, and it shall be unlawful to proceed with the erection, enlargement, alteration, repair or removal of buildings or of any structural part thereof, or of any structure which is to be used for the support, shelter or enclosure of persons, animals or chattels within the city, unless such permit shall first have been obtained from the commissioner of public buildings."

"Sec. 14. Cost of Permits.—The fee to be paid for a permit for the erection or alteration of buildings shall be one dollar, if the estimated cost of said building or buildings, or alteration, shall be less than one thousand dollars; and for every additional one thousand dollars of cost, or fraction thereof, the further sum of fifty cents shall be paid. If it should appear to the commissioner of public buildings, during the erection of any building or buildings for which a permit has been issued, that the cost of said building is in excess of the amount stated in the original application, the commissioner of public buildings shall have the right to re-estimate the cost of any such building or buildings, and require the owner of said building or buildings to pay an additional fee, so that the fee paid shall conform to the entire cost of said building or buildings, as provided for in this section. The fee to be paid for a permit to remove a building shall be one dollar if the building covers twenty-five hundred square feet or less of area, and the further sum of fifty cents shall be paid for every additional twenty-five hundred square feet of area or part thereof. The fee to be paid for a permit to erect signs, as provided in section eighty-one of this ordinance, shall be at the rate of one dollar for every twenty-five square feet of area of such sign, or portion thereof. Each such permit shall state thereon the number and size of signs permitted thereby, and the street and number of the premises whereon they are to be placed. The fee to be paid for a permit to erect billboards, shall be at the rate of one dollar for every five lineal feet thereof, and each such permit shall state thereon the length of billboards permitted thereby, and the street and number of the premises whereon they are to be erected, and their distance from the line of the street. The fee to be paid for a permit to erect or install any heating or power apparatus, as required in sections one hundred and nine and one hundred and ten shall be one dollar for every such apparatus."

"Sec. 81. Signs.—Any signs now erected, or that may be hereafter erected, on the top of any building, or attached to the walls of any building, and that may become rotten or unsafe, shall be taken down and removed upon notice so to do from the commissioner of public buildings. No sign exceeding twenty square feet in size shall hereafter be erected on any building without a permit from the commissioner of public buildings, as provided in sections two and fourteen of this ordinance. No sign exceeding three and one-half feet in width, or ten feet in height, shall hereafter be attached to any building, unless such sign is constructed wholly of metal or other noncombustible material. When two or more signs are placed on any building, one above another, the width or height of the signs shall be measured as if there were but one sign, and the spaces between the signs shall be included in the width of the signs, unless there be a clear space of at least six feet between the signs. No sign shall hereafter project more than eighteen inches over the building line of any street or alley, nor shall any projecting sign be placed nearer than eight feet to the ground or pavement of any street or alley; nor shall any sign be so placed as to obstruct any fire escape, or interfere with the operations of the fire department. Every sign hereafter erected on any building, shall be supported upon heavy iron braces bolted to the walls or roofs of the building in a firm and secure manner; and it shall be...