Most lawyers practice in small firms, which may be why most lawyers who write blogs are in solo or small-firm practices. Marketing consultants to the legal industry have been pushing blogging for several years, and now more attorneys from large firms are getting into the act. I’ve added three blogs written by large-firm lawyers to Read the rest of this entry
Tag Archives: Law
When you sue, you’d better ask for everything
Johnny Ray Chadd was the city administrator for Lake Ozark. City administrators in Missouri are always a vote or two away from getting fired, and Chadd was on the brink. On a vote to fire him in 2005, after he had served less than one year, the aldermen were deadlocked and the mayor cast the tie-breaking vote to let him go.
Chadd sued, claiming that the applicable Missouri statute and the city ordinance required the vote of a majority of the aldermen to remove him as a city officer. The mayor’s vote was irrelevant. In 2007, the appellate court ordered that Chadd be reinstated. He was rehired and immediately fired by the unanimous vote of the aldermen.
Chadd sued again, seeking back wages for the period between his first firing and the second, also alleging that he was wrongfully terminated. Apparently because Missouri law characterizes the employment relationship as at the will of the employer, Chadd alleged that his termination fell under the vague term “prima facie tort,” a legal theory that has never gotten any traction in Missouri courts.
The trial court threw out Chadd’s suit on Lake Ozark’s motion for summary judgment.
Chadd didn’t sue for back wages in the first suit, so he was barred from bringing up the issue now under the principle of res judicata. This principle means that courts will not consider claims that either were or could have been raised in a previous suit between the same parties. The trial court indicated that Chadd had been obligated make his claim for back wages in his first suit, where he was successful.
The prima facie tort claim also failed. Missouri’s at-will employment doctrine applies to situations where there is no employment contract for a specific term. A worker cannot win a suit for damages resulting from termination unless the termination violates some other statute, such as a statute protecting whistle-blowers or persons who are fired for filing workers’ compensation or racial discrimination claims, for example. Calling a wrongful termination claim a prima facie tort doesn’t get around the at-will employment doctrine.
The Court of Appeals upheld the summary judgment in this opinion, Chadd v. Lake Ozark.
Partition: not always an equal division of real estate
No house is big enough for two couples, my mother told me long ago. Especially when one couple pays for nearly everything.
When the non-paying couple asked the court to divide the house, a Missouri court left them out in the cold. They appealed, and the court’s decision in Hoit v. Rankin indicates Read the rest of this entry
Missouri’s weak commitment to criminal defendants: is there a solution?
The glum face of associate circuit judge John Waters graces the pages of the New York Times, along with photos of Jared Blacksher, who sits in the Christian County jail, awaiting a court-appointed attorney to defend him.
Judge Waters, whose chambers are in the Christian County courthouse in Ozark, Missouri, ten miles south of Springfield, ordered the public defender to represent Blacksher, but the public defender Read the rest of this entry
Whoops. Missouri Supreme Court releases man convicted in 1993 without jurisdiction.
The Missouri Supreme Court today ordered the release of Dwight Laughlin, who was convicted in 1993 of burglary and property damage crimes at the post office in Neosho, Missouri in State ex rel Laughlin v. Bowersox. You can read the briefs here.
At Laughlin’s trial in 1993, his attorney failed to Read the rest of this entry
Summary judgment reversed, no surprise, but in a collection case?
Baca, a chiropractor, sued the Cobbs for fees. The Cobbs answered that at least part of the fees were unreasonable, alleging that Baca jacked Read the rest of this entry
