Missouri Lawyers Weekly articles from April 2002

Missouri Lawyers Weekly archives from April 2002

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 1, 2002.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Final Judgment - All Issues Where the buyer of a used car sued the seller for breach of warranty and conversion of the repossessed car, a judgment by the trial court...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: April 1, 2002.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Coram Nobis - Abolished Writ - Appeal Dismissed Where an inmate filed a petition for a "Writ of Error Coram Nobis' in which he claimed he was innocent of the charge on which he...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: April 1, 2002.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Waiver - Injunction - Equipment Lease Where the owner of equipment rented to another company under a lease that contained an arbitration clause went to court to seek possession of...

United States Court Of Appeals 8th Circuit Court Case Summaries: April 1, 2002.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Female Inmate - Failure To Protect - Knowledge Where a state prison female inmate was coerced into having sexual contact with a prison guard and sued the warden and prison security...

St. Louis lawyer who wanted to be ALJ wins age bias verdict.(Missouri administrative law judge)
April 1, 2002... Byline: Stephanie S. Maniscalco A veteran workers' compensation attorney whose application to become an administrative law judge was rejected several times won a $333,000 age discrimination and retaliation verdict against the Department of...

Sex abuse cases against church difficult in Mo.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Victims of sexual abuse by clergy in Missouri face two significant obstacles in civil lawsuits against churches, according to experts -- the five-year statute of limitations and the protections given to...

Missouri Court of Appeals' Western District rules arbitration was waived by filing of injunction.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Where a rental company filed a petition for injunction against the lessee of some industrial equipment, the company waived its right under the lease agreement to arbitrate the parties' dispute over payment, the...

Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District rules 'restriction' of dad's visitation improper.
April 1, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones A father's visitation should not have been reduced after the custodial mother moved within the same metropolitan area, the Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District has ruled. The father argued that the...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: April 8, 2002.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The St. Louis law firm of Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard announced that Anthony J. Soukenik has joined the firm as a partner. He will practice in the firm's Business Practice Group in the areas of...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 8, 2002.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Misrepresentation - Sale Of Business - Failure To Disclose Where the buyers of a moving and storage company claimed that the broker who handled the sale for the sellers had failed to...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: April 8, 2002.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Exhaustion Of Remedies - Paternity - Notice Where a man contacted a Division of Child Support Enforcement investigator after receiving notice of the pendency of an administrative...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: April 8, 2002.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Equitable Accounting - Fiduciary Relationship - Evidence Where the trial court specifically found that a fiduciary relationship existed between plaintiff, the provider of...

Federal court in St. Louis rules 'junk fax' prohibition violates 1st Amendment.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones A federal statute that bans "junk faxes" violates the First Amendment, a federal district court judge in St. Louis has ruled. The government argued in support of the prohibition that unsolicited faxes shift...

'Covenant marriage' bills in Missouri would make divorce difficult.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Legislation that would allow Missouri couples to choose a "covenant marriage" -- which would permit divorce only after counseling fails and fault is proved -- is being considered by the General Assembly. ...

Missouri Court of Appeals' Western District faults use of 'similar crimes' test.
April 8, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Where a woman was raped by an unknown assailant in the bathroom of a service station, she could sue for premises liability because the "totality of circumstances' showed that the rape was foreseeable, the...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: April 15, 2002.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Edward V. Crites has joined the Clayton law firm of Behr, McCarter & Potter. His practice is concentrated in the area of civil litigation, with an emphasis on professional negligence defense. Crites...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 15, 2002.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Interpleader - Conversion Claim - Evidence Where both a landowner and her hired hand made claims on a granary for soybeans they had deposited with the granary for storage, the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: April 15, 2002.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Rule 84.04 - Brief - Inadequate Where the brief of a pro se appellant in a divorce case who complained about the division of marital property contained an inadequate...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: April 15, 2002.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Licensing - Physical Therapist - Examination Where a statute was passed that provided that no person should be allowed to sit for the physical therapist licensing examination...

Missouri Supreme Court Court Case Summaries: April 15, 2002.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery - Depositions - 'Apex' Rule - Corporate Officers Where plaintiffs in litigation arising from accidents involving Ford Broncos sought to depose the Chief Executive...

Missouri Supreme Court nixes depos of Ford Motor executives.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Plaintiffs in a products liability case against Ford Motor Company could not depose high-level executives because they did not have discoverable information, the Missouri Supreme Court has ruled. The court...

Missouri Supreme Court rules trial judge can 'invite' questions from jurors.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones Jurors are permitted to ask questions of witnesses at the discretion of the trial judge, the Missouri Supreme Court has ruled. One of the parties in the case argued that the trial judge should not have...

Job discrimination cases are viable absent firing.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Stephanie S. Maniscalco A recent $1.5 million verdict shows that job bias cases can be successful even though an employee remains on the job after charging harassment. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, the lack of hard...

Commentary: now read this.(headline writing)
April 15, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones In the journalism business Lawyers Weekly is known as a niche newspaper, a publication marketed to a narrow segment of the population -- lawyers. (I mean the segment is narrow, not the lawyers). Now that...

Commentary: Grisham Slams St. Louis Lawyers.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Why are St. Louis plaintiffs' lawyers so backward? That's what a big PI attorney in The Summons, John Grisham's latest legal thriller, wants to know. Patton French is a "shameless ego pit" of a...

Buchanan County Circuit Court Honors Judge Frank Connett Jr.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Buchanan County Circuit Court en banc is hosting a reception to honor Judge Frank D. Connett Jr. for 50 years of public service as a prosecutor, circuit judge and senior judge. The reception will be...

Big Law Firms Are Forming Litigation Support Depts.
April 15, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Advances in computer technology have created a whole new niche in the practice of law for people who specialize in litigation support management. Attorneys in big firms say they now depend on in-house...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: April 22, 2002.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Husch & Eppenberger announced that Brian J. Fernandez, Matthew Eilerts and Greg G. Gutzler have joined the firm. Fernandez, who is also a certified public accountant, will practice in the Tax & Estate...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 22, 2002.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Prostitution - Evidence Where defendant and his wife engaged in oral sex with each other in exchange for $200.00 charged to undercover police officers who responded to an...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: April 22, 2002.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Rule 29.15 Proceeding - Burden Of Proof Where defendant claimed that the burden of proof on a movant in a Missouri Rule 29.15 proceeding was improper under United States Supreme...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: April 22, 2002.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative License Discipline - Discovery - Scope - Impeachment Where a chiropractor was subject to a license discipline proceeding based on the testimony of a deceased patient's wife and...

United States Court Of Appeals 8th Circuit Court Case Summaries: April 22, 2002.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice State Court Action - Anti- Injunction Act - 'Relitigation' Where a state court action was filed which was "one of those rare cases in which the issues pursued in state court are...

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Mo. rules travel co. tried to bolster vacation plan sales.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones A travel company that used a phony Better Business Bureau report to help sell its vacation packages was counterfeiting the BBB trademark, a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri has ruled in a...

Ancillary business trend hits Missouri law firms.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Several Missouri law firms have launched non-legal businesses recently in an effort to better serve their existing clients -- and to generate additional revenue, say firm members. The state's lawyers have...

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Mo. rules home buyer didn't meet financing contingency.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Kristen H. Garroway Where a home buyer did not obtain a loan commitment as specified in the real estate contract, the financing contingency was waived and both parties remained obligated to perform, the Missouri Court of Appeals'...

Verdicts & Settlements April 22, 2002: Fraud Charged In Vacation Plan Sales.
April 22, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $1 Million Verdict The four plaintiffs filed fraud claims against the officers of a company that sold them timeshare and vacation packages. Between May 1998 and January 1999, the plaintiffs...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin announced that Lon J. Brincks has joined the firm's Kansas City office as a partner in the Real Estate Department. The firm also an-nounced that Jason E. Gordon and...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Rule 84.04 - Brief - Inadequate Where the brief of a pro se appellant in a civil case failed to contain a statement of fact or point relied on that complied with the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Damage Evidence - Reopen Case - Discretion Where the plaintiffs in a court-tried lawsuit for waste resulting from damage to a leased mobile home inadvertently failed to offer...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Exhaustion - Notice - Attorney Even though a City Charter section required notice of an adverse employment action to be given to the employee involved, where employee had...

Missouri Supreme Court Court Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Abandonment Of Corpse - Constitutionality - Vagueness Where a man who left the dead body of his wife for three to four hours before he returned and called 911 was charged with the...

Lake Ozark Police Officer Sues Over Strippers.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff On April 24, the Jefferson City News Tribune reported that a former Lake Ozark police officer filed a lawsuit claiming that he was fired for complaining about a bachelor party in which two female...

Missouri Supreme Court Question: Huck Finn A Felon?
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff If Huckleberry Finn were alive today, could he be found guilty under Missouri law for abandoning a corpse? On April 23, the Missouri Supreme Court posed this question in an opinion that determined...

St. Louis City Circuit Court Rules Musicians At 'Racist' Rally Were 'Public Figures'.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones Musicians who performed at a concert organized by a "racist" group had no defamation claim over a newspaper article connecting them to the group, a St. Louis City Circuit Court judge has ruled. This was...

OCDC: Defense Lawyers In Missouri Should Beware Flat Fees.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Stephanie S. Maniscalco Missouri lawyers who defend personal injury cases should be wary about accepting files from insurance companies on a flat-fee basis, according to a recent advisory opinion from the Office of Chief...

Mo. Dept. of Labor & Industrial Relations Comm. Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Tort Defamation - Public Figures Where members of a musical group claimed that they were defamed in a newspaper story by being equated with "a dangerous hate group' after they appeared at a...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: April 29, 2002.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Employer - Employee Discrimination - Disability - 'Disabling Impairment' Where a school teacher who was not offered a contract for the following year after she had been treated for breast...

Q&A With Judge Troy K. Hyde: Circuit Court, Associate Division, Washington County.
April 29, 2002... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Originally setting out to become a Washington, D.C., attorney, Troy K. Hyde became hooked on "the rural way of practicing law" as a public defender, assistant prosecuting attorney and sole practitioner...