Real Property: Firing Range-Dissolution of Permanent Injunction

Two landowners appealed the dissolution of a permanent injunction imposing restrictions on the operation of petitioner’s firing range. The injunction was originally imposed after the trial court found that the range was a nuisance that prohibited nearby property owners’ quiet enjoyment of their land. After the legislature enacted laws granting firing ranges immunity from nuisance and trespass actions, petitioner sought to dissolve the injunction. Petitioner and landowners entered a settlement prohibiting further litigation for 20 years. At the end of that period, petitioner again moved to dissolve the injunction. The trial court granted summary judgment for petitioner.

Where petitioner had failed to argue that the change in the law resulting from the legislature’s adoption of shooting club immunity had made it inequitable to continue enforcing the injunction, petitioner could not prove that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law since a change in fact or law on its own was insufficient to set aside an injunction.

Judgment is vacated and remanded.

Glendale Shooting Club, Inc. v. Landolt (MLW No. 79621/Case No. SC99701 – 13 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Powell, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Franklin County, Hellman, J. (David L. Baylard, Union, for petitioners) (David R. Bohm and Lauren L. Wood, St. Louis, for respondent)