Appeals court rules against Boone County landowner
A Missouri appeals court sided against a Boone County landowner in a blistering opinion issued Tuesday, saying the man lied to another court in his legal battle over a building.
The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals upheld a Boone County judge’s December order that Seth Reynolds be held in contempt for not following an order to remove a building, satellite dish and fence from the setback and right-of-way at his North Creasy Springs Road property.
Reynolds was sentenced to serve time in jail until the building, dish and fence were removed from the setback and county right of way. Reynolds appealed the injunction and lost last year. He then appealed the contempt order to the Western District.
In its ruling Tuesday, the appeals court found the trial court was correct in its contempt ruling in part because of misrepresentations of fact by Reynolds. Reynolds lied to the trial court about having a mortgage on his Creasy Springs property when he did not, the court ruled, and he didn’t make proper efforts to get the building demolished.
The information about the mortgage was important because it was used to determine whether Reynolds had the financial ability to demolish the building.
“It is clear from the record that the circuit court was not amused with Reynolds’s previous false representations about his financial wherewithal to purge himself of contempt nor his lack of credible attempts to remove the offending physical structures on his real property,” appeals judge Mark D. Pfeiffer wrote in the opinion.
The appeal means the contempt judgment against Reynolds stays in effect.
