![]() ![]() With respect to final judgments, Henderson did nothing new. 13 When an order meets these requirements of substance and form, it qualifies as a “judgment.” A judgment must be in writing, denominated “judgment,” and signed by the judge. 10įor purposes of this discussion, Henderson’s key holding is that there are two aspects to what makes a judicial order a “judgment.” 11 The first is substantive and establishes what an order must do to qualify as a judgment: “ judgment is a legally enforceable judicial order that fully resolves at least one claim in a lawsuit and establishes all the rights and liabilities of the parties with respect to that claim.” 12 The second aspect relates to form. 9 Put simply, the Court determined the circuit court’s order was, in substance, a judgment and, because a circuit court “has no discretion to resolve claims other than by judgment,” it made permanent the preliminary writ compelling the circuit court to sign and file a judgment dismissing the relator’s claim. 7 The relator then filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, seeking to compel the circuit court to denominate its dismissal order a “judgment.” 8 The Court issued a preliminary writ and subsequently issued an opinion making the preliminary writ permanent. 6 Back in the circuit court, the relator filed a motion requesting the circuit court to denominate the order a “judgment,” which the circuit court overruled. 5 The relator attempted to appeal the dismissal order to the Supreme Court of Missouri, but the Court dismissed the appeal for lack of an appealable judgment. 4 The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, which the circuit court granted in an order. 3 In that case, the relator was a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in the Boone County circuit court that challenged the results of a sales tax election under the Community Improvement District Act. The Court’s recent clarification of final judgments began with State ex rel. 2 This article first discusses the Court’s recent decisions, then synthesizes the test developed in those decisions, and ultimately illustrates the test for final judgments in a decision tree for ease of use. Out of that series of decisions, a test has been piecemealed, and the resulting framework provides litigants with a reliable method for determining when a judgment may be considered a final judgment from which an appeal may be taken in Missouri’s state appellate courts. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court of Missouri has issued multiple decisions examining the criteria that must be met for a judgment to be considered final and, consequently, from which judgments parties can appeal in the typical civil case. ![]() After all that, the appellate court then has no choice but to dismiss the appeal for lack of a “final judgment.” The parties are left to return to the circuit court empty-handed and pick up litigation where they left off – all at significant expense and delay. 1 In such cases, the parties expend the time and cost of fully briefing the merits of an appeal, and the appellate court hears oral argument. ![]() Dismissing appeals for lack of a final judgment is a common occurrence in Missouri’s state appellate courts.
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