When an HOA looks at revising its subdivision covenants (sometimes called CCRs, declaration, restrictions, restrictive covenants, master deed, or indenture), the board and its attorney generally find a paragraph toward the end of the covenants that requires that the owners of a majority of lots–or units, for a condominium–must approve the amendment for it to be effective. The required majority could be the votes of the owners of more than half, two thirds or three fourths of the total number of lots, or in rare cases, all the owners of all lots. In some instances, certain types of amendments m ..read more

When real estate purchase contracts do not contain an accurate legal description of the real estate being purchased, there is a substantial risk that the wrong real estate will be conveyed. This situation is usually not present when the transaction involves platted subdivision lots–though it can be a problem if a portion of the lot has been sold by the seller to another party. But with property that is described by other methods than lot numbers, the risk of selling the wrong property is magnified. This problem is not theoretical. I have seen it frequently and it leads to lawsuits, expense and ..read more

We’d all like to be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin or our gender, unless there is some special advantage to whatever classification we can claim. But people are people, and our long history of being unnecessarily concerned about gender and race is deep. I happened to see one of the new forms for applying for expungement under Missouri’s 2018 statute, in which there is a blank for the sex and race of the applicant. The older expungement statutes also specified that sex and race would be a part of the application. The application also calls for a driver’s ..read more

A Missouri appellate court refused to set aside the conviction of murderer, sentenced to life without parole, who claimed that his confession was not voluntary, but coerced by the police. A part of the opinion contains a transcript of a phone conversation between the accused suspect, after he had been arrested, and his wife, who thought the lawyer’s advice wasn’t worth the money they paid: [Defendant]: I told them, I said, I want to cooperate and say everything I think I know, you know, but this lawyer told me not to say anything …. [Wife]: Listen to me, please listen to me. … I feel as thoug ..read more

In 2012, the Missouri General Assembly gave circuit court judges the ability to create road maintenance plans over shared private roads under some circumstances, enacting what is now section 228.369 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri. I wrote about the promises of this legislation when it was enacted, pointing out some of its features and limitations. Now we have the first appellate decision concerning this statute, which indicates that judges in trial courts can exercise discretion in: the manner in which assessments for road maintenance are allocated among the property owners who use the r ..read more

Brooks Blevins has given us a fresh and refreshing new look at the early history of the Ozarks in the first volume of A History of the Ozarks, published in July 2018 by the University of Illinois Press. I bought my copy through Amazon. This history is refreshing because it includes many aspects of Ozarks history that I have learned and forgotten, as well as including lots of things that I never knew. It is fresh because it does avoids the errors of many histories of the Ozarks. The introduction is essentially an essay to counter the stereotyping of the people of the Ozarks. I highly recommend ..read more

In this article from Missouri Life, “The Tribes of Missouri, Part 1: When the Osage & Missouria Reigned,” the author Ron Soodalter barely hints that the Osage and Missouria people are living people who maintain relationships with Missouri. Admittedly, the focus of the article is historical. The Osage Nation has very competent academically-trained historians and archaeologists, and citizens who can relate oral histories that involve the Osage time in Missouri, who should have been consulted. Magazine articles and museum curators who treat Indians as an extinct form of wildlife–or as ex ..read more

Marshall Hill and his wife Tami and their granddaughter Tinley had a wonderful vacation to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. They made this beautiful music video to remember it by ..read more

Regulation of providers of local services–barbers, real estate brokers, taxi cabs, etc.–is traditionally a function of state and local governments. Not discerning any great effect on interstate commerce (i. e., no significant campaign contributions), the United States Congress has stayed out of this field. Many economists and politicians, especially those with a libertarian bent, wonder why a manicurist or a hair braider, needs a license.  Restrictions on entry into an occupation protect the license holders from competition and allow them to raise their prices. I have read that at the pea ..read more