Court Opinion

ID: 9778778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:20:16.307556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:13.097275
License: Public Domain

GREENE, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The portion of the trial court’s judgment pertinent to this appeal is contained in paragraph 11 of the trial court’s findings where this language appears:
The tight and high privacy fence (approximately six feet high and solid construction) is in violation of Restrictive Covenant No. 3 as to the front set back line or front yard set back. As it is now constructed, the fence constitutes a building within the language of ‘no dwelling, including porches or terraces or any other building’ as stated in Restrictive Covenant No. 3.
Restrictive covenant No. 3 does not mention fences, but reads, in its applicable part:
*750No [d]welling, including porches or paved terraces or any other building shall be erected on any residential lot in Woodcliffe [e]loser to the front line of any lot than shown by the set back lines on said Plat.
The only way that the word “fence” could be engrafted into such prohibition is through judicial construction; that wondrous device used by some judges and courts in an attempt to cure almost every social ill known to mankind, without the aid of legislative pronouncement on the subject. I do not share such a philosophy.
The law does not favor restrictive covenants. For that reason, they are strictly construed in favor of free use of the land. Dierberg v. Wills, 700 S.W.2d 461, 468 (Mo. App.1985). Restrictive covenants are not to be extended by implication to include anything not clearly expressed in them. Vinyard v. St. Louis County, 399 S.W.2d 99, 105 (Mo.1966). If the meaning of a restrictive covenant is clear and unambiguous on its face, it is not open to judicial construction. Lake Wauwanoka, Inc. v. Spain, 622 S.W.2d 309, 313 (Mo.App.1981).
To me, the words “dwelling” and “building,” which are the key words in restrictive covenant No. 3, are not ambiguous. If they are not, then strained judicial construction, which decrees that the terms “building” and “dwelling” can be interpreted to mean that a fence is one of such structures, is not permitted under Missouri law. Buildings, dwellings, and fences are simple words that are known and commonly understood by every American over the age of six. A dwelling is a building or shelter in which people live. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary 352 (1980); Black’s Law Dictionary 596 (4th ed. rev. 1972). The same two dictionaries define a building as a structure or edifice erected by man and designed for the habitation of man or animals, or for the shelter of property. Webster’s at 144; Black’s at 244. As such, it has walls, and usually a roof. On the contrary, a fence is simply a barrier erected by man intended to mark boundaries, or to prevent escape or intrusion. Webster’s at 418; Black’s at 745.
No definitions to the contrary appear in the Greene County Zoning and Building Regulations, which are applicable in this case, since Woodcliffe Subdivision is in the unincorporated area of Greene County, Missouri. In its building regulations, Greene County follows The BOCA National Building Code/1987, which defines a building as any structure, used or intended, for supporting or sheltering any use or occupancy. BOCA at 23. A fence certainly does not fall within this definition.
Finally, the Greene County Zoning Regulations adopted February 15, 1978, and last amended July 18, 1988, which contains hundreds of references to buildings, defines a building as any structure having a roof supported by column[s] or walls, used or intended to be used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, or property. Article 1, Section 3(9). In the same regulations, a dwelling is defined as any building or portion thereof designed or used exclusively for residential occupancy of one or more persons including one family, two-family, and multi-family dwellings, but not including tents, travel trailers, boarding, rooming houses, tourist courts, hotels or motels. Neither definition mentions fences.
The Building and Zoning Regulations of the City of Springfield define buildings and dwellings in substantially the same manner as does Greene County. General Ordinance No. 3870 of the City of Springfield, effective October 1987, which amended Chapter 36 of the Land Development Code, refers to the prohibition of erecting fences in certain areas where they might hinder visibility of street traffic. Words such as hedge, tree, shrub, flower, and other vegetation or landscaping materials are included in the fence-like objects that are prohibited in certain areas.
There is nothing in either the county or city ordinances or regulations that even remotely suggests that the framers of such laws and regulations had the slightest notion that anyone would ever construe those laws and regulations in such a way as to say a fence was a building, or, conversely, a building was a fence.
*751The developer (Salts) of Woodcliffe Subdivision was well aware of what a fence was, since he provided in restriction No. 12 as follows:
No residence or outbuildings may be erected, placed or altered on any lot until the construction plans, specifications and a plan showing the location of the structure have been approved by Salts as to quality of workmanship and materials, harmony of exterior design with existing structures and as to location with respect to topography and finish grade elevation. No fence or wall shall be erected, placed or altered on any lot unless similarly approved. (Emphasis ours.)
It seems only logical to me that if the developer intended to include fences, walls, hedges, etc., along with dwellings or buildings, as things prohibited in the set back line area in restriction No. 3, he would have said so.
Even if there were doubt as to what the words “building” and “dwelling” in restriction No. 3 mean, which seems highly unlikely to me, such doubt, by law, should be resolved in favor of the free use of the property by its owners. Caniglia v. Nigro Corporation, 441 S.W.2d 703, 712 (Mo. 1969). When one considers the possible implications of the trial court’s ruling, its faulty rationale is obvious. There are thousands of fences in Greene County located on, or near property lines. If they are transformed by a wave of the judicial wand into buildings, are all of those property owners required to remove them, as violative of county and city set back requirements? Are existing fences enclosing swimming pools, which encroach in set back line areas, to be tom down, exposing small children to danger and property owners to lawsuits?
I believe the trial court in its judgment went far beyond the expressed language of restriction No. 3 in order to reach a result evidently desired by the court. Such judicial tinkering should be avoided at all costs. When judges twist the meaning of words, contrary to their clear and unambiguous meaning, in order to reach the result they wish to reach, the public, which is used to plain, common sense language and the ordinary meaning of words, loses faith in the judicial system. I do not believe that we should contribute to that loss of faith.
I would reverse the judgment of the trial court.