2026-09-12 · Missouri · Courts

What happened. A condominium owners association sued a Missouri city over a sewer line the city had run beneath the association's land without an easement, which ruptured and spilled sewage across the property. The association pleaded negligence, nuisance, trespass and ejectment. On 25 September 2025 the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, held that none of those theories was available — inverse condemnation is the only remedy — and made a writ of prohibition permanent as modified.¹

The case is State of Missouri ex rel. City of Osage Beach v. The Honorable Aaron G. Koeppen, No. SD38855, an original proceeding in prohibition. The real party in interest is Grand Harbour Condominium Owners Association, Inc. Chief Judge Jennifer R. Growcock wrote; Judges Don E. Burrell and Jack A. L. Goodman concurred.

The facts

Grand Harbour owns Lot 1 of Malibu Place in Camden County. The City of Osage Beach had laid a sewer line beneath that land without an easement. In April 2021 the line ruptured and sewage escaped onto the association's property. The association filed two counts of negligence plus nuisance, trespass and ejectment.

The holding

Because the city is an entity holding the power of eminent domain, the court held that the pleaded theories did not state a viable claim and the city was entitled to dismissal as a matter of law. The rule, as the opinion states it:

“Inverse condemnation is the exclusive and proper remedy for an alleged nuisance or other damage caused to private property by an entity having the power of eminent domain.”

“When private property is damaged by a nuisance operated by an entity having the power of eminent domain, the proper remedy is an action in inverse condemnation.”

The court enforced that rule by prohibition rather than waiting for a final judgment, on the principle that “prohibition will lie if plaintiff's petition does not state a viable theory of recovery, and relator was entitled to be dismissed from the suit as a matter of law.”

What the court left open

The disposition was not a dismissal of the association's grievance. The writ directs the circuit court to grant the city's motion for judgment on the pleadings or to allow the association leave to amend. The association's route is to plead inverse condemnation; the claim was channelled, not extinguished.

1. State ex rel. City of Osage Beach v. Koeppen, No. SD38855 (Mo. App. S.D. Sept. 25, 2025) — opinion text ↩
2. The Missouri Bar, hand-down summaries, week of Sept. 26 – Oct. 2, 2025 (identification) ↩