Property rights: When private and public collide
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Above left, Dorman Sturgell (left), trustee of the Sturgell Family Trust, and his son, Randal Sturgell (right), stand in front of gates beyond which, they say, is their private road, a road which is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit in Barry County circuit court.
Barry County commissioners and the Mountain Special Road District claim the lane shown above, right, is public, in part due to low water crossings installed when the road district was formed in the 1980s.
Barry County commissioners and the Mountain Special Road District claim the lane shown above, right, is public, in part due to low water crossings installed when the road district was formed in the 1980s.
February 17, 2020
Sheila Harris
Descending from the ridgetop of Hatcher Mountain Road into Flat Creek Valley one sees, arguably, some of the most breathtaking scenery in Barry County, although few would argue.
However, a narrow dirt lane beyond steel double-gates at the bottom of the descent, proceeding east some 500 yards, has become the subject of argument.
The lane has always been his private property, says Dorman Sturgell, the 90-year-old trustee of the Sturgell Family Trust. The trust has filed a lawsuit with Barry County Circuit Court asking for a judgment to that effect.
The defendants - Barry County comissioners and the Mountain Special Road District - claim the lane is a public road.
Area realtors say this type of argument between private landowners and government is not unusual.
What is unusual with this case is that public money continues to be used to defend it - a fact presiding commissioner and defendant Gary Youngblood confirms.
The lawsuit has been ongoing for almost two years, since a petition was filed in Barry County Circuit Court by the Sturgell Family Trust, naming current Barry County commissioners, Gary Youngblood and Gary Schad; former commissioner, Wayne Hendrix; and the Mountain Special Road District as defendants, alleging that the defendants are unconstitutionally “taking” the road going into the Sturgell family's property without due process, and, by so doing, are interfering with the family’s ability to pursue its cattle-raising livelihood.
The defendants argue that the road is public, because - they allege - County Aid Road Trust (CART) funds from the Missouri Department of Transportation have been used for its maintenance.
The use of CART funds specific to that bit of road, however, hasn’t been documented, says the Sturgells’ attorney, Russ Schenewerk, of Schenewerk & Finkenbinder in Branson.
The Sturgell property – around 200 acres – has supported the Sturgell family since 1954, the year Dorman Sturgell came home after serving in the Korean War and purchased his first parcel of the property, about 120 acres. With the help of his father, Marlett Sturgell, he began grazing cattle and raising forage crops in the fertile valley, on land located at the end of what is commonly called Hatcher Mountain Road which ends in the valley two miles east of Highway 39. The Sturgell family has run cattle continuously on the land since that time.
Hatcher Mountain Road didn’t have a name back in 1954, Dorman Sturgell said, in the deposition he gave the courts in March of 2020.
“The road was mostly just a wagon trail,” Sturgell said. “My dad and I graded it from Highway 39 back to my farm with a tractor and blade. He drove the tractor; I sat on the blade.”
Now, Sturgell says, he has been forced to file a lawsuit to protect his family’s interest in part of the road he once created.
No easements or rights-of-way to his property have ever been granted, he says, nor are any recorded with the county.
The Sturgell Family Trust alleges that the county’s attempt – beginning in 2015, they say - to prohibit the family from locking the gate across the lane leading into their property affects their ability to run cattle on the land.
The story dates back to the formation of the Mountain Special Road District in the 1980s.
“We were all friends and neighbor and lots of things were done by a handshake back then,” Ed Fink, one of the three original road commissioners said.
As a child, Fink lived on the property the Sturgells now own.
“The lane at the end of Hatcher Mountain Road has always been private,” he said. “Dorman Sturgell never gave the road district any right-of-ways to improve his road.
“But when the road district was formed, we needed a place to turn our grader around at the end of the road, so Dorman installed a cattle guard at his own expense and told us we could turn the grader around on his property,” Fink said.
“Because Dorman helped us, we did favors for him, too, like putting in some concrete low-water crossings and a little gravel. He never asked us to. We just did it.”
Though he doesn’t label them as “favors,” Gary Youngblood alleges maintenance to the road, by the road district, continued over the ensuing years, long after Ed Fink left the road commission around 2003 and commissioner Mike Collins took his place. Taxpayers' dollars in that road district will be wasted, says Gary Youngblood, if the Sturgells win their case.
When Dorman Sturgell’s new neighbors – James and Ginger Hicks - moved in from out of state in the late 1990s, Sturgell helped them out, too, according to Dorman’s son, Randal Sturgell. Dorman, he said, told them they could use his lane to access the new house they built on their property (which bordered the Sturgell property on the south), until they could improve their own old lane which once connected to the public road. The old lane, according to Dorman Sturgell and Ed Fink, once ran across the Hicks’s property to historic Doty Cemetery, located just south of the Sturgells’ land, on the Hicks’s parcel.
The Hickses, however, never revitalized the old lane which the Sturgells claim once connected to the portion of the road which they do acknowledge as public. Instead, the Hickses sold off the west portion of their land which would have provided access to the unquestioned portion of public road, the Sturgells say. The Hickses then continued to use what the Sturgells say is their private lane to get to their home, as if it was their right to do so, the Sturgells allege.
When the Sturgells’ cattle began to get out some years later because random people began using the lane as a thoroughfare to the creek (without the Sturgells’ permission) and leaving the wire gate across the cattle guard open, the Sturgells installed double steel gates - and locked them.
That’s when trouble with the county and their neighbors began, the Sturgells allege, trouble which involved law enforcement.
The neighboring Hicks house now sits vacant. James Hicks died in 2017 and Ginger Hicks moved out of state.
Old Doty cemetery hasn’t been used for new burials in decades. Like many others in the county, it now resides behind fences and a locked gate.
The lawsuit, however, continues.
Schenewerk, counsel for the plaintiff, says he is puzzled by the county’s persistence.
Gary Youngblood says the persistence is because taxpayers’ money is at stake: the taxes of those who pay into the Mountain Special Road District.
“The road district’s spent a lot of money over the years maintaining that road,” Youngblood said.
“Would you want your tax dollars used to benefit a private landowner?” He asked.
The Sturgells ask where due process of law, which should be afforded a private landowner, comes into play.
Former presiding 39th Circuit presiding judge, Jack Goodman, dismissed requests for summary judgment from all parties’ attorneys. The case will go to trial, although a date has not yet been set.
David Cole, of Ellis, Cupps & Cole Law Firm, former counsel for the Barry County commissioners, has been appointed to the position of 39th circuit judge, where, he said, he will recuse himself from the case.
Don Cupps, of Ellis, Cupps & Cole Law Firm, will take Cole’s place as defense attorney for the commissioners.
The Mountain Special Road District’s case is being defended by Katherine Ann Thompson, of Baird, Lightner, Millsap, P.C.
Sheila Harris
Descending from the ridgetop of Hatcher Mountain Road into Flat Creek Valley one sees, arguably, some of the most breathtaking scenery in Barry County, although few would argue.
However, a narrow dirt lane beyond steel double-gates at the bottom of the descent, proceeding east some 500 yards, has become the subject of argument.
The lane has always been his private property, says Dorman Sturgell, the 90-year-old trustee of the Sturgell Family Trust. The trust has filed a lawsuit with Barry County Circuit Court asking for a judgment to that effect.
The defendants - Barry County comissioners and the Mountain Special Road District - claim the lane is a public road.
Area realtors say this type of argument between private landowners and government is not unusual.
What is unusual with this case is that public money continues to be used to defend it - a fact presiding commissioner and defendant Gary Youngblood confirms.
The lawsuit has been ongoing for almost two years, since a petition was filed in Barry County Circuit Court by the Sturgell Family Trust, naming current Barry County commissioners, Gary Youngblood and Gary Schad; former commissioner, Wayne Hendrix; and the Mountain Special Road District as defendants, alleging that the defendants are unconstitutionally “taking” the road going into the Sturgell family's property without due process, and, by so doing, are interfering with the family’s ability to pursue its cattle-raising livelihood.
The defendants argue that the road is public, because - they allege - County Aid Road Trust (CART) funds from the Missouri Department of Transportation have been used for its maintenance.
The use of CART funds specific to that bit of road, however, hasn’t been documented, says the Sturgells’ attorney, Russ Schenewerk, of Schenewerk & Finkenbinder in Branson.
The Sturgell property – around 200 acres – has supported the Sturgell family since 1954, the year Dorman Sturgell came home after serving in the Korean War and purchased his first parcel of the property, about 120 acres. With the help of his father, Marlett Sturgell, he began grazing cattle and raising forage crops in the fertile valley, on land located at the end of what is commonly called Hatcher Mountain Road which ends in the valley two miles east of Highway 39. The Sturgell family has run cattle continuously on the land since that time.
Hatcher Mountain Road didn’t have a name back in 1954, Dorman Sturgell said, in the deposition he gave the courts in March of 2020.
“The road was mostly just a wagon trail,” Sturgell said. “My dad and I graded it from Highway 39 back to my farm with a tractor and blade. He drove the tractor; I sat on the blade.”
Now, Sturgell says, he has been forced to file a lawsuit to protect his family’s interest in part of the road he once created.
No easements or rights-of-way to his property have ever been granted, he says, nor are any recorded with the county.
The Sturgell Family Trust alleges that the county’s attempt – beginning in 2015, they say - to prohibit the family from locking the gate across the lane leading into their property affects their ability to run cattle on the land.
The story dates back to the formation of the Mountain Special Road District in the 1980s.
“We were all friends and neighbor and lots of things were done by a handshake back then,” Ed Fink, one of the three original road commissioners said.
As a child, Fink lived on the property the Sturgells now own.
“The lane at the end of Hatcher Mountain Road has always been private,” he said. “Dorman Sturgell never gave the road district any right-of-ways to improve his road.
“But when the road district was formed, we needed a place to turn our grader around at the end of the road, so Dorman installed a cattle guard at his own expense and told us we could turn the grader around on his property,” Fink said.
“Because Dorman helped us, we did favors for him, too, like putting in some concrete low-water crossings and a little gravel. He never asked us to. We just did it.”
Though he doesn’t label them as “favors,” Gary Youngblood alleges maintenance to the road, by the road district, continued over the ensuing years, long after Ed Fink left the road commission around 2003 and commissioner Mike Collins took his place. Taxpayers' dollars in that road district will be wasted, says Gary Youngblood, if the Sturgells win their case.
When Dorman Sturgell’s new neighbors – James and Ginger Hicks - moved in from out of state in the late 1990s, Sturgell helped them out, too, according to Dorman’s son, Randal Sturgell. Dorman, he said, told them they could use his lane to access the new house they built on their property (which bordered the Sturgell property on the south), until they could improve their own old lane which once connected to the public road. The old lane, according to Dorman Sturgell and Ed Fink, once ran across the Hicks’s property to historic Doty Cemetery, located just south of the Sturgells’ land, on the Hicks’s parcel.
The Hickses, however, never revitalized the old lane which the Sturgells claim once connected to the portion of the road which they do acknowledge as public. Instead, the Hickses sold off the west portion of their land which would have provided access to the unquestioned portion of public road, the Sturgells say. The Hickses then continued to use what the Sturgells say is their private lane to get to their home, as if it was their right to do so, the Sturgells allege.
When the Sturgells’ cattle began to get out some years later because random people began using the lane as a thoroughfare to the creek (without the Sturgells’ permission) and leaving the wire gate across the cattle guard open, the Sturgells installed double steel gates - and locked them.
That’s when trouble with the county and their neighbors began, the Sturgells allege, trouble which involved law enforcement.
The neighboring Hicks house now sits vacant. James Hicks died in 2017 and Ginger Hicks moved out of state.
Old Doty cemetery hasn’t been used for new burials in decades. Like many others in the county, it now resides behind fences and a locked gate.
The lawsuit, however, continues.
Schenewerk, counsel for the plaintiff, says he is puzzled by the county’s persistence.
Gary Youngblood says the persistence is because taxpayers’ money is at stake: the taxes of those who pay into the Mountain Special Road District.
“The road district’s spent a lot of money over the years maintaining that road,” Youngblood said.
“Would you want your tax dollars used to benefit a private landowner?” He asked.
The Sturgells ask where due process of law, which should be afforded a private landowner, comes into play.
Former presiding 39th Circuit presiding judge, Jack Goodman, dismissed requests for summary judgment from all parties’ attorneys. The case will go to trial, although a date has not yet been set.
David Cole, of Ellis, Cupps & Cole Law Firm, former counsel for the Barry County commissioners, has been appointed to the position of 39th circuit judge, where, he said, he will recuse himself from the case.
Don Cupps, of Ellis, Cupps & Cole Law Firm, will take Cole’s place as defense attorney for the commissioners.
The Mountain Special Road District’s case is being defended by Katherine Ann Thompson, of Baird, Lightner, Millsap, P.C.
