Missouri Supreme Court issues more opinions — and faster — in 2019

The Missouri Supreme Court ended 2019 a bit more productive, slightly less divided and a little quicker than in the previous year.

The court issued 33 written opinions in the latter half of 2019, bringing the year’s total to 75. That’s a dozen more than the prior year, when the court issued a historically low total of 63 opinions. According to a database of Supreme Court opinions maintained by Missouri Lawyers Media, it was the lowest output in at least 18 years. The number of rulings in 2019, however, was a fairly typical yearly output.

One third of last year’s cases featured a dissent from at least one judge. That’s more than the court’s long-term average of 25 percent. But it’s down from 2018, when 37 percent of cases were split, and it is well below the court’s 21st-century high of 44 percent, set in 2015.

On average, the 2019 opinions were issued 153 days from the date of argument, down from 170 days in 2018. Those are the two longest wait periods on record. Over time, the Supreme Court has taken an increasing amount of time to resolve cases. Between 2001 and 2012, cases on average took less than three months to issue. Since 2013, the yearly average hasn’t fallen below four months, and for the past two years it has been more than five months.

To some degree, those increases are driven by a handful of unusually long-pending opinions, typified by a pair of rulings in December that resolved a dispute about municipal taxes and upended decades’ worth of precedent on what constitutes a special law. The cases — City of Aurora et al. v. Spectra Communications Group LLC, d/b/a CenturyLink, SC96276, and City of Chesterfield et al. v. State of Missouri, SC96862 — took 579 days and 468 days, respectively, to come out.

In the cases, the court said laws that affect only a subset of places or people can survive constitutional muster so long as they have a rational basis. That would appear to make it much easier for the legislature to pass such laws. It was one of many rulings affecting state government that the Supreme Court, the Missouri Court of Appeals and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have produced in the past six months.

Activism and open records

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected challenges to two recent legislative bills that included a variety of marginally related subjects. A legislative activist challenged them under provisions of the state constitution that require bills to have a single subject and clear title, and to stick to their original purpose. Surveying decades of such rulings, the court upheld the two bills in question but declined to set any bright-line tests. The cases are Calzone v. Dorson, SC97132 and Calzone v. Chinn, SC97211.

That same activist, Ron Calzone, had a starring role in a ruling from the 8th Circuit, which upheld a Missouri law allowing random inspections of commercial vehicles without probable cause. The case is Calzone v. Olson, 18-1674. Yet Calzone won a victory from the same court when the full 8th Circuit reversed a prior panel ruling and said that, as an unpaid activist, he doesn’t have to register as a lobbyist with the state of Missouri. The case is Calzone v. Summers et al., 17-2654.

The Supreme Court agreed that absentee ballot applications and ballot envelopes from a hotly contested 2016 primary election were open records. The ruling also said the attorney seeking the records could not be made to pay the election board’s costs. The case is Roland v. St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners, SC97781.

The Western District upheld a $42,550 judgment against the city of Raytown for violating the Missouri Sunshine Law. The city had refused to turn over traffic records that it feared would be used against it in a lawsuit. The case is Wyrick v. Henry, WD82557. The same month, the court in Harper v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, WD82465, said federal law did not preempt the Sunshine Law in a request for records relating to the 1994 shooting death of a highway patrolman. The records included information from FBI reports about the case.

The Western District also said a man isn’t subject to life on the state’s sex-offender registry just because of a technicality involving the name of the crime. The case is Dixon v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, WD82346. And the court ruled that a man who was convicted of a misdemeanor but had the conviction expunged also can expunge the record of a later false arrest. The case, T.V.N. v. Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Justice Information Services, WD82341, is among several recent cases involving expungement.

Tort law

The Supreme Court granted a new trial to a man who claimed a hospital had negligently credentialed the surgeon who allegedly injured him. The court already had ruled in the case earlier this year, entering a defense judgment. But in an almost unheard-of move, the court held a second round of arguments on the case before revising its initial decision. The case is Tharp v. St. Luke’s Surgicenter-Lee’s Summit LLC, SC96528.

The high court also said a quadriplegic man was bound by an arbitration agreement that the person to whom he gave power of attorney had signed when admitting him to a nursing home. The two sides disagreed on whether the document was part of the patient’s necessary arrangements for care. The case is Ingram v. Brook Chateau, SC97812.

Other notable Supreme Court cases: It applied a new standard of review to challenges involving the apportionment of wrongful-death settlement funds in Macke and Eden v. Patton, SC97599. It said an attorney missed his change to ask potential jurors about their ties to the opposing party’s insurer during voir dire in Eoff v. McDonald et al., SC97640. And it found Missouri’s long-arm statute provided enough of a toehold for a plaintiff to try to recover a judgment from a Kansas-based insurer in State ex rel. Key Insurance Company v. Roldan, SC97623.

The Eastern District threw out a $110.5 million verdict involving Johnson & Johnson talcum powder, ruling that a St. Louis judge didn’t have jurisdiction over the Virginia plaintiff’s claim. The case is the latest to apply a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits when state courts can hear suits involving nonresidents. The case is Slemp v. Johnson & Johnson, ED106190.

The court also restored a nearly $1.9 million jury verdict against the St. Louis Metro, finding that a federal regulation that sets minimum levels of financial responsibility for motor carriers trumped a state statute that limited the agency’s liability. The case is Moore v. Bi-State Development Agency d/b/a Metro, ED107143.

The Western District affirmed a $35 million arbitration award for a man injured in a motorcycle accident, despite claims that the insurer should have been allowed to take part in the case under a law passed in 2017. Lawmakers are seeking to revise the law to prevent lawyers from using arbitration to make an end-run around the 2017 statute. The case is Aguilar v. GEICO Casualty Co., WD82266.

The same court upheld a judgment for a woman injured at a horse racetrack, despite a statute that bars suits arising from the “inherent risks” of equine activities in Rosales v. Benjamin Equestrian Center LLC, WD82485. And it revived several lawsuits against a municipality stemming from a fatal car wreck on a city street in Thompson et al. v. City of St. Joseph, WD82589.

The 8th Circuit said a St. Louis theater’s policy of captioning only one performance per week for hearing-impaired people didn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But a dissenting judge said the ruling could have “far-reaching unforeseen consequences.” The case is Maria Childress et al. v. Fox Associates, 18-2352.

Workers’ compensation

The Western District ruled that a woman could receive total disability payments after she tripped at a doctor’s office while being treated for chemical exposure in the workplace. The exposure contributed to only a small portion of her disability, but the court said her fall at the doctor’s office was part of the course of medical treatment for her workplace injury. The case is Schoen v. Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center et al., WD82258.

Also, the Western District said a woman was owed compensation after she nursed her husband, who suffered PTSD from a terrifying truck accident. The court declined to find that her services were merely the kind ordinarily provided by a wife to a husband. The case is Reynolds v. Wilcox Truck Line Inc., WD81969.

The Eastern District ruled that a man partially disabled by an occupational disease still could bring a claim against the state’s Second Injury Fund, as his injury predated a law that tightened eligibility. Six years after the Second Injury Fund was overhauled, however, it’s not clear that many other cases exist to take advantage of the ruling. The case is Krysl v. Treasurer of Missouri, ED107591.

Criminal law

The Supreme Court split 4-3 in denying post-conviction relief to an intellectually disabled man who participated in the gruesome murder of a prosecutor. The man’s attorney had told him that a trial could result in the death penalty, even though his disability would have taken that off the table if it had been proven. The case is Johnson v. State of Missouri, SC97330.

The high court also upheld a Missouri law that allows judges to impose a death sentence after a jury deadlocks on punishment. The ruling stems from the brutal abduction and murder of a girl in Springfield. The case is State v. Wood, SC96924.

Also, the Supreme Court overruled a 1943 case that held that a jury instruction is barred if a criminal defendant’s own testimony contradicts it. Instead, the Supreme Court said, the defendant is entitled to any instruction supported by substantial evidence, regardless of who introduced that evidence. The case is State v. Barnett, SC96138.

The Western District said the state’s parole board does not have to consider consecutive sentences when weighing parole for juveniles previously sentenced to life without parole. Although a recent state law requires such youthful offenders to get a hearing after 25 years in prison, the appeals court said nothing in that law expunges sentences for other crimes the juvenile committed. The case is Jones v. Missouri Department of Corrections, WD82678.

The Western District also ruled for the first time that a criminal defendant does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to text messages he sent to third parties, allowing the messages to be introduced at trial. The case is State v. Boyd, WD81879.

The 8th Circuit allowed a civil rights action to proceed against a St. Louis police officer accused of performing an unreasonable body-cavity search on a woman in a parking lot. Each of the three judges on the panel wrote separately. The case is Robinson v. Hawkins et al., 18-1823.

The 8th Circuit also ruled that Kansas City public school officials didn’t violate the constitutional rights of a second-grade student by handcuffing him.  The case is K.W.P. v. Kansas City Public Schools et al., 17-3602. Similarly, the Eastern District said a St. Louis high school was justified in conducting a suspicionless search of a student’s backpack, which turned out to hold a gun. The case is In the Interest of: L.E., ED107245.

Practice of law

A split panel of the Eastern District said The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company wasn’t responsible for a judgment against an attorney accused of malpractice. The attorney had failed to tell the insurer that there might be a claim against him from the estate of a former client. But a dissenting judge pointed out that, at the time of the policy renewal, no court had yet held that a legal-malpractice action can survive the injured party’s death. The case is Ruiz v. The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company, ED106926.

The 8th Circuit upheld Armstrong Teasdale’s policy of requiring partners to retire at age 70, saying the policy complies with federal age-discrimination laws. In a related note, the former equity partner who brought the suit lost a related case in state court earlier this month involving his severance pay. The case is Von Kaenel v. Armstrong Teasdale, 18-2850.

The federal court also declined to rule against mandatory fees for state bar associations. The ruling from North Dakota was welcome news to The Missouri Bar, which like North Dakota requires attorneys to be dues-paying members to practice law. The case is Fleck v. Wetch, 16-1564.

Procedure

The Supreme Court helped to clear up longstanding confusion regarding whether something not labeled as a “judgment” can be appealed. The court said a trial court ruling that addressed one issue in an ongoing case could be considered, and that forcing the judge to call it a final judgment “defies reason and elevates form over substance.” The case is Meadowfresh Solutions USA v. Maple Grove Farms LLC, SC97689.

The Supreme Court also said a group of owners and managers of trailer parks and apartment buildings in Kansas City lacked standing to enforce a trash-pickup agreement reached with the city decades ago, as the plaintiffs weren’t among the original parties. The ruling voided a $10.3 million judgment in the plaintiffs’ favor. The case is Sophian Plaza Association et al. v. City of Kansas City, SC97626.

The Eastern District said a Missouri judge should not have dismissed a suit stemming from a fatal train collision in Mexico. The appeals court said the Mexican court system might not be an available forum because plaintiffs’ claims could be time-barred. The case is Rabago et al. v. Kansas City Southern Inc., ED107163.

The appeals court also ruled that a landlord-tenant dispute that was heard by an associate circuit judge couldn’t be appealed directly. The court said the parties should have sought a trial de novo in circuit court first. The case is Reynolds v. Robben et al., ED108174.

And the Southern District said a Greene County circuit judge couldn’t operate a domestic-abuse treatment court that the circuit had never created. The case is State ex rel. Patterson v. Holden, SD35998.

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