Category Archives: real estate law

Branson lakefront deal goes from good to bad. Not what you’re thinking, though.

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Harry Styron

You know the story. The City of Branson gives a great deal to a private business to create an attraction on the Taneycomo lakefront. A few years later, the City doesn’t think the deal is working well for the City. The political winds have changed. Now there’s a lawsuit. Here’s how it went down, more than a half-century ago.

Jim Owen–not to be confused with the singer–played a major role in putting Branson on the tourism map. A consummate promoter of float fishing on the James and White rivers and tourism and commerce in the Branson area, he was unstoppable. Born in Webster County, Missouri (east of Springfield), he came to Branson in 1933, already experienced with public relations.

Soon Jim had built a movie theatre and started a float fishing business that got national attention and was also a banker and farmer. Some fine person posted this promotional silent film of one of his trips (11 minutes long) Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted in Branson, economic development, Missouri economy, Missouri law, Ozarks, Ozarks arts and culture, Ozarks economy, real estate law, Taney County, tourism and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Reformation, or when may a court change a deed?

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Harry Styron

When Rocky Lawrence saw the rig move onto his property to drill a gas well, he checked his deed. Sure enough, nothing on the deed indicated that the seller of the property reserved the mineral rights.

Patsy Barnes saw the same drilling rig and went to Conway Title Company to make sure that she had reserved the mineral rights when she signed the deed conveying that property to Lawrence.   She was certain that the contract for sale stated that the mineral rights would not be conveyed to Lawrence.

Sarah at Conway Title had one of those awful moments, realizing that the reservation of mineral rights was not in the deed that Patsy signed, though the purchase contract stated that the mineral rights would be reserved to the seller. Sarah asked Lawrence to sign a correction deed, but he refused. Then Lawrence filed a quiet title suit, hoping to affirm that he and his wife owned the mineral rights and would receive royalties from natural gas produced from the well on their land.

People ought to be bound by what they sign, especially when it comes to real estate. Otherwise, what would be the point of putting the contract or deed in writing or reading a contract before signing it?

Mistakes are inevitable, and it would be unfair to allow someone to benefit from a mistake at the expense of another. Courts have developed the equitable remedy of reformation for the correction of mistakes and have also developed some strict rules for determining whether to reform a contract or a deed. Though the exact rules vary a bit from state to state, the basic rules are these: Read the rest of this entry →

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LegalZoom.com sued in Missouri class action: maybe now we’ll find out what the practice of law really is

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Harry Styron

What do lawyers do? In other words, what is the scope of the lawyer racket?

A suit filed in December 2009 in Cole County Circuit Court in December 2009 may give us some idea of whether LegalZoom’s document-generation service overlaps the practice of law in Missouri. LegalZoom has filed a motion to move the suit into federal court.

LegalZoom.com., Inc. takes information from its customers and uses that information to complete documents, which it sells to those customers. In some ways, it’s a web-based version of the books of forms that have been available in paper form for hundreds of years and in digital form for 30 years or more.

The lawsuit was filed by persons who used LegalZoom for the preparation of a will and organizational documents for a limited liability company. The plaintiffs asked the court to certify that they were representatives of all Missouri residents who have done business with LegalZoom. The plaintiffs and their lawyers want Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted in Missouri, Missouri economy, Missouri law, Ozarks economy, real estate law, Uncategorized and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Branson Landing land titles: how soon we forget how it was just 10 years ago!

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Harry Styron

Pictures help to tell the story that lies underneath the disputed land titles at the north end of Branson Landing. You can click on these images to enlarge them. Here’s the 1913 plat of Park Addition to the City of Branson.

The southwest corner of the Belk building sits about where Sycamore Street joins what has been called St. Limas Street and Boxcar Willie Drive, now Branson Landing Boulevard. The platted lots in Block 4 of Park Addition were the location of resorts until construction of Branson Landing began. Mang Park, with a baseball diamond and swimming pool, occupied Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted in adverse possession, Branson, Branson-Missouri, economic development, Missouri law, Ozarks economy, real estate development, real estate law, Taney County, tourism and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Jury muddles title to North Beach Park and part of Branson Landing

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Harry Styron

On January 14, 2010, a Taney County jury rendered its verdict on the counterclaim of Doug Coverdell and Coverdell Enterprises against Empire District Electric Company, the Joplin-based utility that owns Lake Taneycomo and some adjacent land.

Coverdell’s counterclaim apparently sought to determine that Coverdell had better title than Empire to Branson’s North Beach Park and the north end of Branson Landing, possibly extending as far south as the north quarter of the parking garage.

The City of Branson has leased North Beach Park from Empire for decades. The deeds that the jury seemed to affirm include land that the City bought from owners other than Empire as well as land owned by persons not involved in the lawsuit.

A quiet title suit often doesn’t absolutely determine ownership, but only determines which of the litigants has a better claim to title. Without a definite legal description and the participation of all the owners, a verdict like the one here is much less than certain.

As events unfold, I’ll explain more here. If you want to get an email notification of updates to this blog, check the email box in the upper right corner of your screen.

Having reviewed portions of the court file, my tentative conclusion is that the jury’s verdict is a long way from resolving the dispute. Empire has filed a post-trial motion and others will be assessing their options. A judgment does not become final for 30 days, which can be extended by the filing of post-trial motions.

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Meth on property doesn’t mean rescission or damages

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Harry Styron

Goldiluxe bought property from Abbott  for $140,000 without seeing it, relying on a property inspector’s report and a real estate agent’s video. The property included land, with a house, a cabin and three mobile homes.

Goldiluxe paid $50,000 down and gave Abbott a note for $90,000. A few months later, the police raided the property and made arrests for meth-related crimes. Goldiluxe’s owner visited the property and found two mobile homes on the property to be junk.  She had the two junk mobile homes removed from the property and moved one new mobile home onto it. Goldiluxe continued collecting rent for another year after the police raid, eventually falling behind on mortgage payments to Abbott.

To stop the foreclosure, Goldiluxe got an injunction, and also asked the court Read the rest of this entry →

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“She must be sane. Her handwriting is beautiful.”

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Harry Styron

How can you tell when somebody has lost the ability to understand a simple transaction? In Ashton Trust v Caraway, an Arkansas court considered an 86- year-old womans’s penmanship in in determining that she knew what she was doing in selling land, even though her son contended that she had Alzheimer’s. Who knew that penmanship could be an important part Read the rest of this entry →

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Charity to animals is basis for property tax exemption

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Harry Styron

Property taxes in Missouri and most states apply to all property that isn’t exempted by a provision of the state constitution or statutes. The exemptions from Missouri real estate taxes are listed in section 137.100 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, which includes government property and

All property, real and personal, actually and regularly used exclusively for religious worship, for schools and colleges, or for purposes purely charitable and not held for private or corporate profit….

Note that the exemption is based on use not ownership.

A recent opinion of the Missouri court of appeals, M’Shoogy Animal Rescue v. Andrew County Assessor, reversed the determination of the State Tax Commission, which had indicated that rescue and medical treatment of  animals was not the kind of charitable use that would exempt a facility from property tax.

The Andrew County assessor and board of equalization and the State Tax Commission all argued that Missouri law had never allowed property tax exemptions for facilities devoted to charitable activities other than those charities that help humans.

Indeed, the court of appeals had to turn to cases from other states, many of which had reasoned that humans benefit from charity to animals, to find precedents for recognizing charity to animals as an activity benefiting humans, thereby justifying a charitable tax exemption.

Is this legislation from the bench? If so, should we agree with it?

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Posted in Missouri economy, Missouri law, Ozarks economy, property tax, real estate law and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Lawyers cringe when neighbors fight

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Harry Styron

If you want to see a lawyer cringe, ask how he or she likes property line disputes or fights over trees near property lines.

The case of Lau v. Pugh shows why lawyers (including trial judges and appellate judges) hate such cases. After all the fighting and expense, nobody is happy. Here’s how it often plays out. Read the rest of this entry →

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It’s time: HOA budgets for 2010

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Harry Styron

Homeowner associations (HOAs) generally have fiscal years that correspond to calendar years, which means that it’s time for HOA boards to begin work on their 2010 budgets, so that the new budget–which establishes the HOA board’s authority to collect assessments and spend money–is in place before the start of 2010.

Missouri HOAs, other than condominium owners associations (COAs), don’t have any special statutes to follow. Instead, they are governed by corporation statutes and by their recorded covenants and by their bylaws, which are often not recorded.

Here’s an overview of the sources of general and financial powers of HOAs and COAs: Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted in condominiums, homeowner association, Missouri, Missouri economy, Missouri law, real estate law and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.
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