Negligence: Wrongful Death-Motion to Intervene

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Police shot and killed a man, whose grandmother filed a wrongful-death suit, claiming to be his next of kin. The man was survived by his parents, both of whom were incarcerated at the time. The man’s father wrote to the court, attaching a handwritten motion to intervene; father did not serve his papers on the other parties. The grandmother’s suit continued for three years until she voluntarily dismissed it. Father unsuccessfully moved to set aside the dismissal and to intervene.

Where father was not a party to the suit, he could not file a motion to set aside the named plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal, and father’s motion to intervene was properly denied where he failed to comply with the rule requiring him to serve his motion on affected parties.

Judgment is affirmed.

Henry v. Piatchek (MLW No. 73770/Case No. SC97385 – 10 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Stith, J.) Appealed from circuit court, St. Louis County, Burlison, J. (Matthew C. Casey, Anne Brockland, and Matthew J. Devoti, St. Louis, for appellant) (Denise McElvein and Peter T. Reed, St. Louis, for appellee)