Appeal filed in Eldon water-billing lawsuit

Plaintiffs filed an appeal Sept. 4 in a civil lawsuit brought against the City of Eldon regarding municipal water and sewer billing policies.

Miller County Judge Ralph Jaynes dismissed the case Aug. 25 in favor of the city on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to file a proper response to the city's motion for summary judgment filed June 2.

A motion for summary judgment includes a list of facts, and a proper response from the opposing side should admit or deny each fact as set forth in the motion's list of numbered paragraphs, said Audrey Smollen, attorney representing the plaintiffs. She contended after the summary judgment was granted that the facts set forth in the city's motion for summary judgment were not admissible evidence, so she could not answer them paragraph by paragraph as required.

The nine plaintiffs, all landlords who own properties in Eldon, are now seeking reversal of the summary judgment granted on all counts of the original case.

"Genuine issues of material fact remain, and (the defendant) was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law," according to the plaintiffs' filed notice of appeal. "The circuit court disregarded that (the defendant, the City of Eldon) first violated those mandates by offering no statements of fact, but only numbered paragraphs that were confusing legal conclusions citing to inadmissible evidence if to anything at all."

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2010, protests what plaintiffs call the city's "vacant meter" and "virtual meter ordinances," claiming the city's 2010 restructuring of its water and sewer billing system burdens some landlords inordinately. The 2010 ordinance at issue raised monthly user rates and began charging owners of multi-unit complexes such as apartment buildings, trailer parks and strip malls served by a single meter a minimum fee per unit in addition to actual usage, where previously they had paid only for actual usage tracked by the meter.

The 2008 and 2010 ordinances in question "increased waterworks charges by imposing on unoccupied properties monthly fees equal to the monthly minimum base water and sewer charges, even if the water meter is disconnected and not in use" and "increased the monthly base water charge from $7.11 for all meters to $14.45 for properties with meters up to 1 inch, to $24.10 for properties with a 1 1/2-inch meter and to $37.37 for properties with a 2-inch meter, thus more than doubling, tripling and quadrupling, respectively, the charges for water use," according to the plaintiff's notice of appeal.

Throughout the course of the lawsuit, the city has maintained the rates are a reasonable means to support its water system.

"Plaintiffs are treated as other residential or commercial residents in the city," according to the city's June 2 motion for summary judgment. "The ordinances complained of have a rational basis in treating each residential dwelling unit in an apartment complex, trailer park or strip mall as any other residential unit regardless of how many meters service the property ... Also, the plaintiffs here all passed the costs on to their tenants."

The case will now go to Missouri's Western District Court of Appeals.