Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Where the father of a man who died of hypothermia challenged the dismissal of his constitutional claims against first responders whom he alleged created or exacerbated the danger of death by declaring him dead prematurely, the appellate court has jurisdiction ...

Tagged with: First Responder Defendants Hypothermia Death Qualified Immunity

Where a plaintiff sued a city and a towing company for allegedly violating her Fourth and 14th Amendment rights after her car was towed without her consent or a warrant and damaged during storage, the plaintiff presented sufficient evidence to ...

Tagged with: Fourth Amendment Towed Vehicle

Plaintiff, a civil detainee, appealed the district court’s dismissal of his pro se civil rights complaint, challenging the dismissal of his claim asserting that confiscation of his property violated his due process rights. Where unauthorized deprivation of property by government ...

Tagged with: Civil Detainee Confiscation of Property due process

Plaintiff filed suit against defendants, alleging they terminated him without due process and in retaliation for the exercise of his free-speech rights; plaintiff also asserted a state-law, wrongful-termination claim. The district court denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on qualified ...

Tagged with: Qualified Immunity Retaliation for First Amendment Exercise Termination

Where the family of a man shot and killed during a police chase brought an action against the officer for excessive force and wrongful death, the district court failed to make a thorough determination of the claim of qualified immunity, ...

Tagged with: official immunity Police-Chase Death Qualified Immunity

Where an inmate sought injunctive relief against prison officials for allegedly refusing to provide him with a daily serving of meat in accordance with his Sunni Muslim religious beliefs, the inmate failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as required by ...

Tagged with: Administrative Remedies Inmate Action Religion-Based Diet

Plaintiff appealed the district court’s dismissal of his pro se civil complaint. Where plaintiff had failed to properly present a claim that defendants’ false statements led to his arrest, the district court properly dismissed plaintiff’s complaint. Judgment is affirmed. Banks ...

Tagged with: Dismissal of Suit False Arrest false statements

Where an officer challenged the denial of qualified immunity in an excessive-force case in which the plaintiff claimed that the officer violated his rights by shocking him with a Taser while he was incapacitated, the appellate court lacked jurisdiction over ...

Tagged with: excessive force jurisdiction Qualified Immunity

Where a woman who suffered a fractured collarbone in an altercation with a police officer brought an action for excessive force, the denial of qualified immunity to the officer is reversed and remanded because it was not clearly established that ...

Tagged with: excessive force Qualified Immunity

Plaintiff appealed from the dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. §1983 complaint, in which he sought to assert a failure-to-protect claim. Where plaintiff failed to allege facts showing that he was faced with a substantial risk of harm and/or that defendants ...

Tagged with: 42 U.S.C. §1983 Failure To Protect Prison Inmate

Defendant, a state trooper, stopped plaintiff for suspected DUI. When plaintiff refused to comply with defendant’s instructions, defendant took plaintiff to the ground, breaking her knee. Plaintiff filed a §1983 action alleging excessive force and unlawful seizure. The district court ...

Tagged with: 42 U.S.C. §1983 excessive force Qualified Immunity