Inoperable Jeep: Cape attorney petitions Mo. Supreme Court over city nuisance summons

Lawyer Richard Kuntze has been fighting Cape Girardeau City Hall in court for nearly three years after he was charged with creating a public nuisance for keeping an inoperable Jeep with expired vehicle registration on his property.

Now, he is taking his case to the Missouri Supreme Court after losing in circuit court and in the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District.

Kuntze sued the city, arguing he was in his legal rights to keep the Jeep on his property and the city ordinance is unconstitutional.

The case dates to 2014.

On Jan. 14, 2014, then-Cape Girardeau nuisance-abatement officer Ben Rhymer observed a green Jeep parked in Kuntze’s driveway.

The Jeep had two flat tires, and its vehicle registration had expired in March 2007, court documents show.

Kuntze was not home. Rhymer left notice to register the Jeep and make it operable or have it removed within seven days.

The officer returned Jan. 22, 2014, and found the vehicle in the same condition.

A summons was mailed to Kuntze for allegedly violating the city ordinance.

Kuntze requested the case be tried in circuit court.

In a trial memorandum filed in circuit court in July 2014, Kuntze said the city had not defined “registered, improperly registered or displaying proper license plates” within the specific ordinance.

“The city does not charge that the vehicle does not display ‘proper’ license plates, but rather that the plates are ‘expired.’ It is undisputed that the plates are properly issued by the state of Missouri,” Kuntze wrote.

He wrote that “properly issued plates which are expired do not support a conviction under the terms of the ordinance.”

The ordinance states an “inoperable vehicle or part thereof, located on any property in the city, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance.”

City code defines an inoperable vehicle as “any vehicle which is not registered or which is improperly registered within the state, or is not displaying proper license plates, or which is inoperable for more than 72 hours.”

Kuntze contended the ordinance is “void for vagueness” and deprives him of due process of law as guaranteed by both the state and U.S. constitutions.

The Cape Girardeau resident also alleged the “ordinance lacks a rational basis for differentiating conduct which is legal and that which is illegal.”

Kuntze said the “law of nuisance recognizes two conflicting rights: property owners have a right to control their land and use it to benefit their interests; the public and neighboring land owners have a right to prevent unreasonable use that substantially impairs the peaceful use and enjoyment of other land.”

He wrote, “Whether a vehicle has expired license plates or not does not in any way affect the use of the land.”

He added, “This is not an issue of regulating the operation of vehicles upon the public roadway.”

But Judge Craig Brewer ruled June 25, 2015, that Kuntze was “guilty” of creating a public nuisance.

Brewer found Kuntze “incorrectly” equated titling the vehicle to registering the vehicle.

“Further, defendant was notified about his alleged wrongdoing and offered the opportunity to correct the situation prior to the issuance of a citation, but the defendant took no action. The court rejects the due process argument,” Brewer wrote.

Brewer wrote “there is a legitimate interest to the city of Cape Girardeau in keeping real property within its limits free from inoperable vehicles. For example, property values as well as the beautification of the city are jeopardized by the accumulation of disabled vehicles or scrap on real property within the city limits.”

In September 2015, Kuntze was fined $200, plus $31.50 in court costs for the nuisance violation.

Kuntze appealed his case to the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District.

On Nov. 8, 2016, the court affirmed Brewer’s ruling, concluding the ordinance was neither vague nor unconstitutional.

On Dec. 30, 2016, Kuntze petitioned the Missouri Supreme Court to consider his case. In asking the state’s highest court to intervene, Kuntze wrote the result of the appeals court ruling is that “the ownership or possession of an unlicensed vehicle, wherever situated in Cape Girardeau, is unlawful.”

Under this ruling, he wrote, “a classic automobile, located within a museum” and the inventory of an automobile dealer would be “a prohibited, unlawful nuisance.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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