Appeal
from the Circuit Court of Boone County, Missouri The
Honorable Jodie Asel, Judge.
Before
Special Division: Zel M. Fischer, Special Judge, Presiding,
and Alok Ahuja and Karen King Mitchell, Judges.
OPINION
Karen
King Mitchell, Judge.
Seth
Reynolds appeals, following a bench trial, a permanent
injunction issued in favor of Boone County and against
Reynolds, requiring him to remove a detached garage, privacy
fence, and satellite dish he had erected in the public
right-of-way adjacent to a public road in Boone County,
Missouri. Reynolds raises three points on appeal, all of
which are focused on what he claims is a dearth of evidence
demonstrating that any of the structures resulted in harm to
County. Finding no error, we affirm.
Background[1]
Sometime
before June 21, 2013, without first obtaining a building
permit, Reynolds began construction on a detached garage,
measuring approximately forty-by-forty feet, near his home on
Creasy Springs Road in Boone County, Missouri. The garage sat
approximately eighteen-to-twenty feet off the edge of the
paved road. After he had installed the footings and piers for
the garage, his builders expressed concern about the location
of a nearby power line and its potential interference with
continued construction. Consequently, Reynolds contacted
Boone Electric to see about having the power line relocated.
When a representative from Boone Electric showed up, he
advised Reynolds that, in order to obtain a permit to
relocate the power line, Reynolds first needed a building
permit for the garage. Accordingly, Reynolds contacted County
and requested and received a building permit on June 21,
2013.
Four
days after Reynolds received a building permit, Uriah Mach, a
land-use planner for County, sent Reynolds an email, advising
Reynolds that the garage was located too close to Creasy
Springs Road[2] and that Reynolds would need to apply to
the Board of Adjustment for a variance before proceeding any
further.[3] Mach did not hear back from Reynolds but
followed up the email with two letters, dated July 9, 2013,
and July 24, 2013.[4] In both letters, Mach advised Reynolds
that County was taking issue with the location of his garage
and that Reynolds needed to take some action to address it.
Reynolds did not immediately respond to County's
notifications, instead he proceeded with the completion of
the garage.
Sometime
in 2015, Reynolds finally applied for a variance for the
setback violations with the Board of Adjustment. The Board
unanimously declined Reynolds's request. Thereafter,
County demanded that Reynolds take action to bring his
property into compliance with both the right-of-way and the
zoning regulations, but Reynolds refused. Thereafter, County
filed a petition for permanent injunction against Reynolds,
alleging that Reynolds's property "denied [County]
the access to th[e] right-of-way . . ., together with the
land-use authority statutorily granted to [County] to
establish, promulgate, and enforce zoning regulations,
thereby causing [County] irreparable harm, " and that
Reynolds's actions were "perpetual, and so [County]
has no adequate remedy at law." County sought a
permanent injunction, "mandating that [Reynolds] comply
with Boone County, Missouri zoning regulations, and that he
remove the accessory building, the fence, and the satellite
dish from . . . the right of way area, . . . the setback
area, . . . [and] the area in front of the main
building."
At
trial, the court received testimony from Mach and a surveyor
describing the location of the right-of-way boundaries, the
setback boundary, and the various items of Reynolds's
property. The court also received testimony from Reynolds
indicating that he had not been aware of his need to obtain a
permit before constructing the garage, that other nearby
properties appeared to be in violation of the same
right-of-way and setback requirement, and that it cost
Reynolds $30, 000-35, 000 to construct the
garage.[5] After hearing the evidence, the trial
court found that
[Reynolds] has unlawfully constructed and maintains on his
property an unlawful accessory building abutting North Creasy
Springs Road, together with a fence and a satellite
television receiver dish between that building and North
Creasy Springs Road, all in violation of plaintiff Boone
County's Ordinances and which all unlawfully encroach on
the 25-foot setback area established by the Boone County
Zoning Regulations and upon the Plaintiff's right of way
abutting North Creasy Springs Road in front of that property.
The
trial court entered a permanent injunction, requiring
Reynolds to
remove in its entirety that building, that fence, and that
satellite receiver dish from the Boone County setback area
and Boone County's North Creasy Springs Road Right of Way
within 60 days of the date of th[e] Judgment and . . .
permanently restrained and enjoined [Reynolds] from building
or maintaining any structures in that setback area or in that
right of way in the future.
Reynolds
appeals.
Standard
of Review
"An
action seeking injunction is an action in equity."
City of Greenwood v. Martin Marietta Materials,
Inc., 311 S.W.3d 258, 263 (Mo. App. W.D. 2010).
"The standard of review in a court-tried equity action
is the same as for any court-tried case; the trial
court's judgment will be sustained unless there is no
substantial evidence to support it, it is against the weight
of the evidence, or it erroneously declares or applies the
law." Id. (citing Murphy v. Carron,
536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976)). "To the extent that
a trial court's grant of injunctive relief involves
weighing the evidence presented, determining the credibility
of witnesses, and formulating an injunction of the
appropriate scope, this court reviews for abuse of
discretion." Id. "The trial court abuses
its discretion when the judgment is clearly against the logic
of the circumstances then ...