Missouri Lawyers Weekly articles from July 2003

Missouri Lawyers Weekly archives from July 2003

Sullivan Elected Chief Judge Of Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District unanimously elected Judge Sherri B. Sullivan as its next chief judge. Her term began on July 1. "I am honored to serve as chief of a court that will...

Bar Association Of Metropolitan St. Louis Launches TV Show.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff "Legally Speaking in St. Louis," the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis' new television talk show, premiered on June 13. The 30-minute programs are scheduled to air every Friday at 5:30 p.m. on...

10 Years Ago In Missouri Lawyers Weekly: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Ex Parte Contacts With Doctor Allowed No doctor-patient privilege exists in the Missouri statutes or common law that would forbid ex parte conversations between a patient's treating physicians and...

Verdicts & Settlements July 14, 2003: Man Filed UIM Claim.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $30,000 Verdict A Springfield man sued his auto insurance carrier after it refused to pay an underinsured motorist claim. Christopher Terrill was stopped at a red light on Nov. 21, 1999 when...

Verdicts & Settlements July 14, 2003: Construction Worker Tripped On String.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $212,000 Verdict An ironworker working on the new St. Louis City jail sued the project's electrical contractor after he tripped over a string in a doorway and hurt his shoulder. On June 26,...

Arbitrator Rules Fee Clause Was Invalid, Rules 8th Circuit.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones Even though a district court ruled that an arbitration agreement as a whole was valid, the arbitrator could later conclude that an attorney's fee provision was unconscionable, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Missouri Supreme Court: Transfer Granted.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Missouri Supreme Court granted transfer on July 1 in the following cases: Administrative Law Western District ruling: Where landowners' appeals from the assessment of benefits in levee...

Kansas City Attorneys Obtain Booster Seat Settlement.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Kansas City attorneys Doug Gentile, Randy Rhodes and Evan Douthit recently obtained a confidential settlement of a North Carolina products liability lawsuit involving a Cosco Grand Explorer booster...

Trust Created Pre-Wedding Was Marital Property, Rules Missouri Court Of Appeals' Southern District.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Anne C. Vitale Even though a husband's trust was created five years before his marriage and he never received any income or assets from it, a portion of the trust was divisible as marital property at the time of his divorce, the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Commercial Lease - Unjust Enrichment - Square Footage Where a commercial tenant made rent payments for more than seven years based on a lease agreement that misstated the square...

Missouri Supreme Court Case Summaries: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Damages TCPA - Constitutionality Unsolicited Faxes - 'Advertisements' Where an advertiser sent plaintiff nine unsolicited facsimiles consisting of 18 pages and was found to be in violation of...

Verdicts & Settlements July 14, 2003: Delivery Truck Rear-Ended Car.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $2.2 Million Settlement A woman sued a produce company after she was injured in an accident with one of its drivers. Chris Pridemore was driving on Interstate 70 in Lawrence, Kan., on Dec. 19,...

No Prejudgment Interest For Punitive Damages, Rules Missouri Court Of Appeals' Western District.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones A plaintiff in an asbestos case could not get prejudgment interest on an award of $7 million in punitive damages, the Missouri Court of Appeals' Western District has ruled in a case of first impression. The...

Q& A With Missouri Circuit Court Judge William L. Syler.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Judge Syler has been on the bench since 1992. He recently shared his perspective on the judiciary -- both in southeast Missouri and statewide -- with News Editor Anne Vitale. Born: Nov. 28, 1948 in...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Kathleen S. Schoene and Daniel J. Godar were elected to the Armstrong Teasdale Executive Committee, which oversees the overall management of the firm. Both are partners in the firm's Corporate Service...

Budget Crisis Takes Its Toll On Missouri Circuit Court Operations.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Kelly Kress Missouri's circuit courts will continue to feel an economic pinch under the budget signed by Gov. Bob Holden on June 30 -- which could result in headaches for attorneys and their clients, say some judges and court...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Clean Water Commission - Discharge Permits - Authority Where a reorganization of the state's executive branch took place in 1974 under the Omnibus State Reorganization Act,...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice New Trial Motion - Out- Of-Time - Jurisdiction Where the trial court granted a city's second motion for a new trial six months after a plaintiff had obtained a verdict in a...

United States Court Of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: July 14, 2003.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Attorney's Fees - Unconscionability Where a district court's order determined that an arbitration provision between two parties should be enforced and the order did not address an...

Verdicts & Settlements July 14, 2003: 2-Year-Old Injured In Crash.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $2 Million Settlement A 2-year-old boy sued his mother and the driver of a tractor-trailer after a collision left him a quadriplegic. Aaron Sarratt was riding in the back seat of his mother's...

Ronnie L. White Takes The Helm At Missouri Supreme Court.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Ronnie L. White took over as head of the Missouri Supreme Court on July 1. As the high court's first African-American Chief Justice, White has said his top priority will be to encourage diversity within...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations Marital Property - IRA - Classification - Securities Class Action Lawsuit (1) Where the trial court in a dissolution awarded wife as marital property half of a...

Verdicts & Settlements July 21, 2003: Man Injured In Head-On Collision.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $500,000 Settlement A Butler County man sued for damages he suffered in a head-on collision. On June 28, 2000 David Cash was driving west on County Road 534 when he was hit head-on by Stacey...

Missouri Dept. Of Insurance Licenses New Medical Malpractice Insurer.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Missouri Department of Insurance announced on May 29 that it has licensed its seventh new medical malpractice insurer in the state this year. Physicians Professional Indemnity Association is a...

Missouri Association Of Trial Attorneys Applauds Tort Reform Veto.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys praised Gov. Bob Holden's veto of Senate Bill 280 on July 9, saying that the veto was "a win for America's civil justice system and Missouri's seriously...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Evans & Dixon announced Jason L. Moehlman, Justin K. Burroughs and Joel D. Shaw have joined the St. Louis office. Moehlman and Burroughs are in the Workers' Compensation Practice, and Shaw is an...

St. Louis Lawyer's Kids, Ex-Partners Battle Over Life Insurance.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Anne C. Vitale Two children of a prominent St. Louis attorney have prevailed in a dispute with his former partners over the payout of his life insurance policy. The children of Steven Vossmeyer contended that the $500,000...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Agency Undisclosed Principal - Personal Liability Where the owner of a corporation signed a credit application with his own name and the fictitious name of the corporation and not as president...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Murder - Double Jeopardy - Witness Immunity (1)Where a murder defendant was sentenced on a second-degree felony murder charge as well as an armed criminal action charge, both...

United States Court Of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Binding - Arbitrators - Partiality (1) Where an arbitration clause in an insurance policy did not specify that the arbitration award would be "final and binding" and required all...

10 Years Ago In Missouri Lawyers Weekly: July 21, 2003.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Guardian Can Withhold Medical Care A guardian whose petition for authority to consent to a "do not resuscitate" order had been denied by the probate court has statutory authority, without the need...

Verdicts & Settlements July 21, 2003: RR Worker Claimed Back Injury.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Defendant's Verdict A railroad machinist filed a FELA case against Amtrak, claiming he injured his back moving a 600-pound locomotive wheel. Robert Bandy was a machinist at the Amtrak facility...

Applicants Sought For Missouri Court Of Appeals' Eastern District Vacancy.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Appellate Judicial Commission announced on July 7 that it is accepting applications for the position of Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District to fill the vacancy created by the...

Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District: Both Spouses Owned Shares In Class Action Target.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Kelly Kress Where a husband owned 20,000 shares of stock in a company as his separate property and his wife owned 700 shares, a divorce judgment awarding each party 50 percent of a lawsuit against the company was erroneous, the...

8th Circuit Rules Machinery Bolted Down In Factory Was 'Fixture'.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones Two employees of an independent contractor who were hurt while repairing equipment in an industrial plant could not sue the plant owner for negligence, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The owner...

Verdicts & Settlements July 21, 2003: Plaintiff Waited 10 Days To See Chiropractor.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $680 Verdict The driver of a pickup truck sued the driver of a compact car after a rear-end collision. Terry Mabus was driving home from work during rush hour on April 11, 1997. He was on...

Verdicts & Settlements July 21, 2003: Man Died Following Collision With Truck.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $750,000 Settlement The wife of a Chariton County man who died in an accident with a tractor-trailer sued the truck driver's employer for wrongful death. Leota Guilford was heading west on...

Courtroom Etiquette: What to do and not to do in front of judges.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff If you missed the presentation during the 2003 Solo & Small Firm Conference in June, you still have an opportunity to brush up on "Courtroom Etiquette: The Inside Track of Do's and Don't in Front of...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: July 28, 2003.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The Kansas City office of Evans & Dixon announced that David P. Mosh was promoted to Senior Associate. He received his law degree from Louisiana State University and a bachelor's degree from the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: July 28, 2003.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Evidence - No Error - Sunshine Law Where plaintiffs appealed a trial court finding that defendants did not purposely violate the Sunshine Law as against the weight of the...

United States Court Of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: July 28, 2003.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Petition for Review - Exhaustion of Remedies - Airline Mechanic Where an airline worker whose mechanic certificate was revoked after his urine specimen was found to be...

Verdicts & Settlements July 28, 2003: Passenger Killed In One-Car Accident.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $800,000 Verdict The parents of a 23-year-old passenger killed when the driver crashed into a tree sued for wrongful death. On Aug. 10, 1997 Josh Cotter and Ronald Miller went to a bar in...

Verdicts & Settlments July 28, 2003: Propeller Fell Off Crankshaft.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $3.1 Million Settlement The sons of a Hendersonville, Tenn., couple who died in a plane crash when their plane's propeller disengaged over Farmington, Mo., sued the manufacturer of the engine and...

Family Can Sue Hospital For Body-Part Harvesting, Rules Mo. Court Of Appeals.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones The family of a deceased man could sue a hospital for harvesting his eyes, leg bones and tissue even though they signed a consent form that contained no limitations on the procedure, the Missouri Court of Appeals'...

8th Circuit Dismisses Appeal Of District Court's Remand.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Kenneth C. Jones Where a federal district court remanded a railroad-crossing case on the basis of lack of diversity, the court of appeals had no jurisdiction to consider whether the joinder of certain defendants was fraudulent, the...

Warrant For Blood Test OK Following Driver Refusal, Rules Mo. Court Of Appeals.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Anne C. Vitale A warrant for a blood test was valid even after a woman arrested for drunk driving refused any testing, the Missouri Court of Appeals' Eastern District has ruled. The woman argued the warrant was improper because...

Case With No Economic Damages Settles For $3M.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Anne C. Vitale The adult sons of an elderly couple who died in a small-plane crash have settled their Jackson County products liability case for $3.1 million. The four plaintiffs contended that the propeller fell off the...

Ten Years Ago In Missouri Lawyers Weekly.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Court Strikes UM Policy Limit A police officer who was dragged by the car of a fleeing suspect may recover for his injuries under his auto insurance policy, regardless of policy provisions designed...

Verdicts & Settlements July 28, 2003: Tenant Said She Broke Ankle In Fall.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Defendant's Verdict A tenant sued her apartment complex after she claimed she fell and broke her ankle after stepping in a hole in the lawn. Michele Hein was a tenant at the Grandboro Arms in...

Verdicts & Settlements July 28, 2003: Buyer Claimed Fraud In Business Sale.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Defendant's Verdict A couple who believed they were buying a debt-free business sued the seller for fraud after they discovered the business owned $93,861. Terry and William Roland owned a...

Merger Of St. Louis Law Firms Scrapped.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The St. Louis law firms of Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. and Rosenblum, Goldenhersh, Silverstein & Zafft, P.C. have terminated their discussions about a possible merger of the firms. The merger...

Judge Chosen For U.S. Bankruptcy Court For Western District of Missouri.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Kansas City attorney Dennis Dow has been appointed to the bench on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri. Dow will fill the vacancy created by the January death of longtime...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: July 28, 2003.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery - Sanctions - Paternity Action Where a trial court in a paternity action in which a father was awarded sole custody did not allow mother to present any evidence in her...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: July 28, 2003.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Agency Authority - 'Apparent' - Settlement Agreement - Jury Instructions Even though a party's closing argument instructed the jury on apparent and actual authority, where the issue was...

Verdicts & Settlements July 28, 2003: Man With Leukemia Died Of Hemorrhage.
July 28, 2003... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff $950,000 Settlement The family of a man who died from a hemorrhage while suffering from a rare form of leukemia sued his doctor for medical malpractice, claiming that more timely treatment would...