The availability of clean water in the western Ozarks is becoming acute. The Tri-States Water Coalition and Missouri State University are continuing a public exploration of the supply issues. The New York Times has published the first report of its monumental study of compliance and enforcement of water pollution regulations. Water conservation is a necessary part of the solution, but conservation can do little without changes Read the rest of this entry
Author Archives: Harry Styron
Maybe the duck accent is different in San Francisco?
Trademarks are worth fighting for, at least that’s what Ride the Ducks thinks. Ride the Ducks has filed suit in San Francisco to stop a competitor from using noisemakers that resemble “Wacky Quackers,” a plastic kazoo originated by Ride the Ducks in Branson.
You can read a tongue-in-cheek account of the real duck-to-duck litigation in the legal humor blog Lowering the Bar.
Ride the Ducks claims that Bay Quackers is using devices similar to Ride the Ducks’ Wacky Quackers, allowing Bay Quackers passengers to make duck noises identical to the noises that Ride the Ducks claims to have trademarked, confusing consumers with their noisemakers, thereby undermining the value of the Wacky Quackers trademark. Bay Quackers should stop quacking and give their quack profits to Ride the Ducks, according to the complaint.
Lowering the Bar’s account also takes a swipe at Branson (“The company started in Branson, Missouri, the source of so much that it evil in modern American life, though has since expanded.”). The New York Times stuck to the facts in its coverage of the dispute.
Competition in the duck tour business is apparently intense, according to another legal blogger Ryan Gile who has been following the industry’s trademark battles. In Boston, Boston Duck Tours and Super Duck Tours battled over the right to use the term “duck tour,” which the court found to be generic and not protected by trademark. In his account of the Ride the Ducks v. Bay Quackers suit, Mr. Gile includes a link to a YouTube video.
Take a look at Blawg St. Louis
St. Louis lawyer Jim Hacking has started “Blawg St. Louis,” which covers the legal scene of St. Louis, reporting on court decisions and news about lawyers and the legal profession.
Many readers of Ozarks Law & Economy are in the St. Louis area and may wish to read a blog that covers a wider range of legal issues with a narrower geographic focus.
While Ozarks Law & Economy is primarily directed at legal developments regarding real estate, local government law, and economic issues, Blawg St. Louis looks at lots of other newsworthy aspects of law. I’ll be watching Blawg St. Louis to see what I can learn about legal issues and ways to write about them. I hope you will also.
Private sector jobs lost because of Missouri Division of Tourism budget cuts: why?
Like most states, Missouri’s constitution requires balanced budgets–on an annual basis–forcing the governor to make cuts when revenues fall below budget projections. As reported in the Springfield News-Leader and elsewhere, the Missouri Department of Economic Development has announced that the budget for its Division of Tourism must be sliced by 35%, or $7 million, which will result in a loss of 2,500 private sector jobs in the hospitality industry.
For discussion, here are a couple of my reactions to the cuts in spending for tourism.
Why do the taxpayers subsidize Missouri’s tourism industry? Read the rest of this entry
“I can’t make your loan; my zoning’s wrong.”
The idea of traditional zoning is to segregate land uses. For example, zoning should protect the value of ownership of retail or residential real estate from the effects of a tannery locating next door. In a sense, zoning is a mechanism for separating land uses that could be considered nuisances to neighbors.
But in practice, zoning can have the effect of regulating economic activity that has nothing to do with land use. A zoning dispute over a consumer loan office illustrates how zoning applications provide an opportunity to allow the public and the zoning board to get into such non-land-use issues as the size of a loan, the time allowed for repayment, or whether the collateral for the loan is a car or a post-dated check or something else.
In an August 25, 2009 opinion from the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Titlemax v. City of Bridgeton, the court Read the rest of this entry
Greenwood stands up for its streets and its citizens
It’s so easy to criticize city government for allowing the favored few to take advantage of public goods. And it’s difficult for a city to justify putting a damper on economic activity, even when the activity seems to consume public resources. But the City of Greenwood, Missouri, on the southeast side of Kansas City, did just that, with a jury of citizens deciding that a busy quarry’s truck traffic was a public nuisance.
In City of Greenwood v. Martin Marietta dated August 11, 2009, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri upheld a jury’s determinations (1) that heavy truck traffic from a quarry outside the city constituted a “public nuisance,” justifying the award to the city of damages, including punitive damages, and (2) that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., and its partner were negligent in making street repairs. The Court of Appeals also approved the trial judge’s ruling on the legality of the city’s ordinance excluding commercial traffic.
From the map, the quarry is apparent on the southeast side of Greenwood, as is Greenwood’s Main Street, which is also State Highway 150. The Court of Appeals noted that the trucks hauling to and from the quarry preferred to travel north up Second Street, rather than to get to Highway 150 via State Highway 291; the alternate route would have been a little further and probably would have offended the citizens of Lake Winnebago, rather the citizens of Greenwood.
More confusion for Missouri boat dock law
Boat docks, like other properties along Missouri’s lakes, are valuable and jealously guarded by those claiming ownership or rights of use.
The law of boat docks is a muddle, perhaps due to the historic lack of clarity as to whether a boat dock is real property (land and the things attached permanently to it) or personal property (anything but real property), which is generally portable.
The Missouri legislature attempted to resolve that issue for the purposes of appraisal and mortgage lending with the enactment of HB 842, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Wood, whose legislative district encompasses Table Rock Lake.
Signed by Gov. Nixon on July 7, 2009 and effective August 28, 2009, this new law defines “boat dock” as “a structure for loading and unloading boats and connecting real property to water, public or private.” In addition, “a boat dock is real property and has riparian rights,” provided: Read the rest of this entry
Missouri legislature tries to nullify jury verdict to deprive family of compensation for damages to their home caused by gun club
Many people support the right of a jury to refuse to enforce a bad law. Most people think that courts shouldn’t make laws, but should leave lawmaking to representatives elected by the voters for that purpose.
For a legislature to jump into the middle of a court case and take a swipe at a jury and a judge is simply outrageous. When a family’s home is at stake, the legislature’s action is despicable.
In Brown v. Cedar Creek Rod & Gun Club, you can read the story of the Missouri legislature’s interference with a jury’s verdict and a judge’s injunction to protect the home of Daniel and Donna Brown and their child. Read on.
Holding a city to its promise
Most of us want to respect the government, especially local government. We expect local government to keep its promises.
But the law relating to cities, towns and villages (which are all lumped together in the category “municipal corporations” or “municipalities”) cuts them some slack. A city council, board of aldermen or village board can adopt an ordinance and lawfully repeal it later. Often voters elect new representatives because they promise to vote to change or repeal a previous ordinance.
The adoption of ordinances is how the city’s governing body exercises its legislative powers. A city should have the ability to correct mistakes or adapt to changing conditions for the benefit of the public.
But a city should be held to its agreement, said Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District in its July 21, 2009 opinion in Kindred v. City of Smithville, even though 40 years had passed since the agreement was made and lots of things had changed. Read the rest of this entry
A warranty deed doesn’t always convey everything
Lawyers are taught in law school that ownership of land carries with it a bundle of rights. A warranty deed conveys “fee simple absolute” title, which is the full bundle of rights. A person who obtains title by a warranty deed gets 100% of the rights associated with the piece of land described in the deed, other than what is excepted by the language of the deed, such as recorded restrictions and easements.
But Missouri courts have recognized a hole in this rule: some rights associated with real estate are personal property, not real property, even though the rights have to do with real estate. The warranty deed does not necessarily convey these rights, even though the warranty deed says that it is conveying all “rights, privileges, interests and appurtenances” that go with the land described.
Unless the special rights are specifically identified in the deed or another document of assignment, a court can require a trial to determine whether the person who signed the deed intended to convey them. Most lawyers don’t know about this quirk, and it can bite their clients real hard. Read the rest of this entry
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