Two plaintiffs are out, but appeal of University Heights case is ongoing

Two University Heights litigants have voluntarily dismissed their appeal in a case against developer BK&M LLC.

Mark and Courtney Fletcher, residents of the University Heights neighborhood, filed a voluntary dismissal of their appeal in the case, Dixie Sleight et al. vs. BK&M LLC et al., involving a proposed development at the northwest corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue. The court’s dismissal of the Fletchers’ case was filed on Feb. 28.

The Fletchers were intervenors – litigants who joined the case independently from the group of 12 neighborhood residents who sought to block a proposed BK&M mixed-use development in the residential neighborhood.

The appeal by the other litigants remains pending.

The plaintiffs in the case cited restrictive covenants in original deeds in the century-old neighborhood as prohibiting commercial development. In June 2024, Judge Derek Ankrom ruled against the plaintiffs, stating that the covenants were mostly unenforceable.

In October 2024, the both the main plaintiff group and the Fletchers filed an appeal in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District.

“We are pleased the Fletcher-intervenors decided to end their appeal, which was ill founded and ill conceived,” said Bryan Fisher, attorney for BK&M and a partner with Neale & Newman LLP, in an email to Springfield Business Journal. “While the plaintiffs’ appeal remains ongoing, we are confident the Court of Appeals will affirm Judge Ankrom’s well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion.”

Mark Fletcher told SBJ by email that he anticipates the appeal will not be resolved until late this year, at the earliest.

“My wife and I will no longer own our house in University Heights at that time and would lose standing to maintain the appeal upon a transfer in ownership,” he said. “Accordingly, we filed a voluntary dismissal of our appeal.”

No hearings or trials are scheduled in the case, according to its entry on Missouri Case.net.