HOA takes Missouri family to court over purple playhouse

Lee's Summit, MO — A Lee Summit neighborhood's attempt to foil a lawsuit over a swing set has failed.

About 30 neighbors filled the Raintree Lake Property Owners Association meeting Tuesday night to voice their outrage over the lawsuit that hit a crucial stage on Monday.

That's when the POA's attorney filed a motion seeking a judge's opinion on its suit, which demands that a family take down its purple playset.

Marla Stout had the playset built two years ago for her girls, ages five and eight. They wanted it to be pink, but they settled on a subtle purple that she thought would fit well with the POA rules that it be "in harmony" with the neighborhood.

"Kids are only kids once," said Stout. "You only get a childhood one time in your life and kids want color. Kids want vibrance. And kids deserve to have that."

"Nobody that lives here complained," said Dave Dawson, who lives right across the street.

Dillen Steeby, who has the best view of the play house, with a slide and swings, says the Stout's playset puts his dark brown one to shame.

"My kids would love something like that," said Steeby.

Steeby joined others in expressing frustration with the financial impact of the lawsuit.

"You're spending money, our hard-earned money on a ridiculous unwarranted lawsuit," said Nicole Bonds, who recently moved to Raintree and wore a purple shirt to the meeting to express her support for the Stout family.

The battle began almost a year after the playhouse went up. Stout says she went before the Architectural Review Board offering alternate color schemes but was shot down every time.

In November of 2014 the POA's lawyer sent the Stouts a letter informing them a lawsuit would be filed seeking a court order to remove the playhouse, which he referred to as a swing set. It warned that if the court ordered the swing set removed and the family refused to do so, it "could result in your being held in civil contempt...which would bring with it a daily fine or jail time until the swing set was removed."

It's a threat that angered neighbors who addressed the Board Tuesday night.

"Jail time, really?" asked Dawson. "For a play set with the wrong colors?"

Resident Richard Harkins called the letter "the legal equivalent of baseball bats and brass knuckles."

"This is not reasonable what you've done," said Harkins, who speculated on motives such as "vendetta or ego or misplaced pride."

He called on the board to make a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. That didn't happen.

Many people took issue with getting no explanation from the board, who have repeated that the pending litigation makes it unwise for them to comment.

The letter written in November seems to suggest that the problem was with the Stouts failing to seek approval before building the playhouse and giving up on their frustrated efforts to find a suitable substitute.

"You have repeatedly presented a swing set for ... consideration for which you should have obtained approval before it was put in place," the letter states.

It says that after the purple swing set was rejected, the Stouts failed to appear before the board to "establish an acceptable color swing set application" and instead indicated they would "leave paint as is."

Stout said she made several applications for alternate colors but was rejected. She admitted she never suggested a natural color like walnut brown, because her girls don't want that; they want something "girly." She says she did ask the board to suggest a color that would be acceptable and they refused to give one.

The board president made a brief comment to the angry residents, saying, "Rules have been set forward and we have to abide by them."

Those who stood in support of Stout said rules may be rules but they don't want to see their neighborhood become divisive and uninviting.

"How is pursuing this helping our community?" asked Tina Morrison. "To me it's only hurting it. I don't see how taking away two little girls' playground is helping."

Stout had planned to remain quiet during the meeting, but rose at the last minute and took the board to task.

"My children worked on this," she said. "They think you are snubbing your noses at their taste."

Several residents wanted to know which board members voted to pursue the lawsuit. The board did not answer.

"You sir, do owe some answers," Stout yelled, "not just to me but to everyone in this room....We vote you people onto this board and we can bite you off."

Her comments were the last at the podium, but were followed by calls from the crowd.

"We don't want to pay fees," someone yelled.

"Step down," another said.

"A vote to end this suit," cried a third voice.

The board eventually moved on to its regularly scheduled business and the crowd calmed, sitting through the meeting to its conclusion and leaving frustrated.

An opinion from the judge is expected within the next two weeks.