Municipal: Trash Rebate Program-Breach Of Contract

(1)Where a city paid trash-rebate payments to the owners and managers of multi-unit buildings and trailer parks for more than 30 years, and these plaintiffs challenged the elimination of the rebate program from the city’s budget, the plaintiffs had standing to bring their action, and the city was barred by res judicata from arguing that class-action procedures were not properly followed, and judgment for the plaintiffs on their claims including breach of contract and specific performance is affirmed because the trial court did not err in construing the modified judgment to provide relief to condominium associations, and expert testimony provided a substantial, evidentiary basis for the compensatory damages award.

(2) Where the city challenged an attorney’s fee award against it in a dispute involving a trash-rebate program, the trial court did not err because the court found that the city knowingly and intentionally chose to unilaterally terminate the program in violation of the relevant modified judgment.

Judgment is affirmed.

Sophian Plaza Association v. City of Kansas City, Missouri (MLW No. 72291/Case No. WD80678 – 31 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Ahuja, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Platte County, Van Amburg, J. (Tara M. Kelly, Kansas City, Missouri, for appellant) (Bernard A. Garner, Independence, amicus curiae) (Gregory A. Leyh, Gladstone, Richard Lombardo, Kenneth E. Barnes, Leland M. Shurin, Kansas City, Missouri, and Edward Robertson, Anthony Dewitt, Mary Winter, Jefferson City, Edward Robertson III, Leawood, Kansas, for respondents).