Administrative Law: Police Chief Termination-Contested Case-Tortious Interference

Where the city and an alderman appealed an adverse judgment for the city’s police chief who was terminated for alleged misconduct in office, the trial court correctly held that the termination was unlawful because the city had failed to afford the police chief a formal contested case hearing, and the wrongful discharge judgment was proper against the city, but the judgment against the alderman for tortious interference with contract is reversed, and the police chief’s motion for an award of attorneys’ fees is granted and remanded for determination of the amount of recoverable fees.

Judgment is affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part.

Halderman v. City of Sturgeon (MLW No. 79837/Case No. WD85066 – 33 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Ahuja, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Boone County, Harris, J. (Michael G. Berry and Kimberly J. Zocher, Jefferson City, for appellant) (J. Andrew Hirth and Joanna Trachtenberg, Columbia, for respondent).