Section 1 Evictions

• Library: Remedies 2006

Sections 7.2–7.8 below contain information on the three different procedures used for evictions in Missouri:

1. Rent and possession

2. Unlawful detainer

3. “Immediate eviction”

They are used for entirely different purposes, but they do have a few similarities.

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*Mr. Wise received his B.A., 1972, and J.D., 1975, from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is in private practice in Kansas City, Missouri.

A lease is both a conveyance and a contract. Detling v. Edelbrock, 671 S.W.2d 265 (Mo. banc 1984). The landlord-tenant relationship consists of four elements:

1. A contract, express or implied
2. The creation of an estate in the tenant, either at will or for a term less than that which the landlord holds
3. A reversion to the landlord
4. The transfer of exclusive possession and control to the tenant

Letsinger v. Drury Coll., 68 S.W.3d 408 (Mo. banc 2002); Robert Newcomb v. St. Louis Office for Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities Res.,871 S.W.2d 71 (Mo. App. E.D. 1994); Marro v. Daniels, 914 S.W.2d 16 (Mo. App. E.D. 1995); Kimack v. Adams, 930 S.W.2d 505 (Mo. App. E.D. 1996). These four elements are what distinguish a landlord-tenant relationship from that of a hotel guest or other residential situations.

The question of whether a person was a “tenant” in a “transitional shelter” arose in Thomas v. Cohen, 304 F.3d 563 (6^th Cir. 2002). August House in Louisville, Kentucky, was a “transitional shelter” for women. The women paid $140 per...