Nick Savage sued Kansas City Power & Light after a storm-damaged tree limb pulled down a live service drop line on his property, claiming the utility was negligent in how its linemen handled the downed line and subsequent repairs. A jury found KCP&L zero percent at fault and Savage 100 percent at fault. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the defense verdict. It held that the verdict-directing instruction was complete and independent, directing the jury to find for Savage if he proved his claim “whether or not” he was partly at fault, and that the verdict form separately required the jury to assess percentages totaling zero or 100 percent. Because the jury expressly assigned zero fault to KCP&L, any alleged error in the comparative-fault instruction could not have prejudiced Savage.
In State of Missouri v. Keith A. Coday, the defendant appealed his conviction for driving while intoxicated after a bench trial, specifically challenging the circuit court's finding that he qualified as a persistent DWI offender based on two prior Kansas convictions for driving under the influence. The court had sentenced him as a persistent offender to four years in prison (suspended with probation), relying on certified records from Wyandotte County, Kansas, showing guilty pleas in 1991 under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 8-1567. On appeal, Coday argued the evidence was insufficient to prove the Kansas offenses met Missouri's definition of intoxication-related traffic offenses under section 577.023, as the records did not establish that he had operated a vehicle during those incidents. The Missouri Court of Appeals agreed, holding that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the necessary elements of the prior offenses, and reversed the persistent offender finding while remanding for resentencing on the class B misdemeanor DWI charge.
The case involved a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Orson Wolf against Midwest Nephrology Consultants after his half-brother, Carl Brooks, fell and fractured his hip while unattended following a sedated fistulagram procedure in 2008. Brooks developed pressure ulcers, malnutrition, infections, and other complications over the following months, leading to his death in 2009; Wolf claimed the initial fall resulted from the clinic's negligence. A jury awarded Wolf $459,429.02 in past economic damages but nothing for Brooks's pain and suffering, prompting Wolf to appeal the denial of a new trial and Midwest to cross-appeal the denial of judgment notwithstanding the verdict and an alternative new-trial motion. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court's judgment, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a new trial on noneconomic damages and that Midwest had failed to preserve its claims for appellate review by not properly raising them in post-trial motions, while also dismissing its multifarious second point on appeal.
The case arose after an employee filed discrimination and retaliation charges with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights against her former employer, Tivol Plaza, Inc. The Commission issued a right-to-sue notice more than 180 days later without first determining whether any claims were untimely, prompting Tivol to petition the circuit court for a writ of mandamus to compel such a determination. The circuit court issued summonses rather than a preliminary writ order and then dismissed the petition. On appeal, the Missouri Court of Appeals held that it lacked authority to review the dismissal because, when a lower court denies a writ petition without issuing a preliminary order, the proper remedy is to seek the writ directly from a higher court. The court therefore dismissed Tivol’s appeal.
The Fastnachts appealed a Cass County circuit court judgment that reformed the legal descriptions in four 2001 deeds of trust they executed to secure refinance loans on attached townhomes, as well as the descriptions in later deeds transferring three of the properties to Teng Ge and Yahtzen Gu after foreclosure. The descriptions, prepared from erroneous surveys, covered only the interior walls of each unit and omitted surrounding land needed for access, driveways, and appurtenances, even though the loan documents repeatedly identified the collateral by street address and the Fastnachts had agreed to correct documentation errors. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that reformation was proper to conform the deeds to the parties’ original intent that the properties be conveyed with necessary access and appurtenances.
In this case, Robert Hurst sued Nissan North America on behalf of a class of Missouri owners of 2003–2008 Infiniti FX vehicles under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, alleging that advertising and warranty statements about the vehicles created an actionable misrepresentation when dashboards later developed a bubbling defect. After the trial court certified the class and a jury awarded $2,000 in damages to each of 326 qualifying class members plus attorney fees, Nissan appealed the denial of its motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, new trial, and decertification. The Missouri Court of Appeals reversed the judgment and remanded for entry of JNOV in Nissan's favor. It held that the statements Hurst relied on were non-actionable puffery or opinion rather than specific, measurable assertions of fact that could be proven false, and therefore could not support an MMPA claim; as a result, the plaintiffs were no longer prevailing parties entitled to attorney fees.