Attorneys : Consolidation Agreement – Clerical Functions

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Where a judge challenged a judgment in favor of a circuit clerk and her deputy over the validity of amendments to a judicial circuit agreement consolidating clerical functions under a sole appointing authority, the judgment is reversed because the amendments to the agreement were valid and complied with procedures to which the circuit clerk had voluntarily consented in joining the agreement.

Impact

Concurring opinion by Draper III, J. : “I concur in the principal opinion’s holding reversing the circuit court’s judgment and entering judgment for Judge Steele and Judge Swaim.1 While I agree Decker waived her statutory authority by entering into the 2008 consolidation agreement, I believe Plaintiffs likewise waived their challenge to the validity of this Court’s 2009 order through their pleadings. More importantly, I am compelled to write separately to discuss that which the principal opinion is unwilling to address: the impact of this Court’s 2009 and 2013

orders on the 2008 consolidation agreement, which the principal opinion acknowledges consumed substantial portions of the circuit court’s judgment and the parties’ appellate briefs and argument before the court of appeals and this Court.”

Judgment is reversed.

Gall v. Steele (MLW No. 71687/Case No. SC96188 – 16 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Wilson, J.; Fischer, C.J., Russell, Powell, Breckenridge, JJ., concur; Draper, J., concurs in separate opinion filed; Stith, J., concurs in opinion of Draper, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Boone County, Oxenhandler, J. (D. John Sauer and Charles W. Adamson, Jefferson City, (573) for the presiding judge) (Katherine S. Walsh, St. Louis, for the associate circuit judge) (Robert Herman, St. Louis, for the circuit clerk and deputy clerk).

Read the full text of this opinion. (PDF)