Supreme Court gives rulings

By Harry Plumer

Published April 4, 2008

The Missouri Supreme Court handed out several decisions March 18, and according to Student Legal Services Coordinator Stephen Concannon, one of them could have an impact on students.

Ooh That Smell in Oak Grove The Supreme Court changed the original ruling when they heard the case of Collier v. City of Oak Grove. Donna Collier sued the City of Oak Grove to recover damages caused by the city’s malfunctioning sewer system. Collier said her house had 13 sewage backups over a 12-year span. During these backups, raw sewage spilled into Collier’s basement, causing an odor foul enough to make her physically ill, according to court documents. Of the 13 incidents of sewage displacement, the city of Oak Grove compensated Collier for one. In addition to the smell, the sewage promoted mold growth in the basement, which Collier said caused her serious health problems and led to her evacuation of the house due to a doctor’s order. Collier sued the city and was awarded $200,000 in damages and over $130,000 in interest in lower courts. While the Supreme Court agreed to give Collier $100,000 for her house, the lower courts’ $100,000 award for property damage was struck down. “Collier must still provide evidence of approximately $100,000 in personal property damage,” Justice William Ray Price, Jr. wrote in his unanimously backed opinion. “Evidence of the lost property value must be presented ‘with reasonable certainty,’ Collier’s testimony on the value of this additional personal property is unclear.” The court also sent the issue of interest back to the lower courts. “Because the case must be reversed and remanded due to the insufficiency of evidence to support the amount of actual damages awarded, we need not address this issue in detail,” Price wrote. Even though the court took away more than two-thirds of Collier’s original award, Concannon said, “The case sets an example of a suit awarding damages for mold causing injury to the inhabitants against a person whose duty it was to keep mold out, i.e. a landlord or in this case, the city.” The ruling could be beneficial to students in the area who have had their own basements and apartments damaged because of insufficient care by landlords or city officials.

Other important rulings • Other cases handed down include a class-action suit against Countrywide Financial Home Loans, a mortgage company which was charging fees to prepare legal documents related to mortgage-loan transactions, even though nonlegal personnel were the ones preparing the documents. Homeowners who paid the fees within the last two years sued Countrywide for damages, with the court ruling in their favor. Anyone who paid the fees to Countrywide in the last two years will have the opportunity to reclaim that money plus interest in some cases. • The City of Arnold won an appeal of a trial court ruling that prevented them from condemning property that was deemed to impair the growth and development of the city. The court found the Tax Increment Financing Act, which deals with the acquisition of land to develop bad areas of Missouri’s cities, is constitutional. “The condemnation is authorized under the TIF Act because it allows the City to condemn property for the redevelopment of blighted areas,” wrote Justice Mary Russell, author of the majority opinion. • Norfolk Southern Railway Company lost its appeal against Timothy Sorrell, a railway worker than was injured in a dump truck accident. Sorrell kept his original $1.5 million award.