Missouri Supreme Court Opinions and Missouri Case Law Search, Including Court of Appeals Opinions

How do I search Missouri case law?

Start with the district. Missouri has one Court of Appeals divided into Eastern, Western, and Southern districts, and the district that hears your appeal is set by where the case was tried, not by what it is about. That matters because the districts are coordinate courts. A published Eastern District opinion binds the circuit courts inside the Eastern District, but the Western District is free to read the same statute differently, and sometimes does. If you search "Missouri Court of Appeals" as though it spoke with one voice, you will find authority that reads as settled and is not settled in the courtroom you are standing in.

Then describe the issue as a full question rather than a string of keywords, with the statute, the parties, and the procedural posture in it. Missouri appellate opinions turn heavily on the standard of review, and the standard is usually stated in the first paragraphs rather than in the holding you are hunting for. A search that knows you are appealing a court-tried judgment rather than a jury verdict surfaces a different and much shorter list of cases than one that only knows your legal theory.

Finish by checking the disposition, not just the text. Missouri gives you two ways to be wrong about a case that reads perfectly well. It may have been affirmed by memorandum decision, in which case there is nothing citable no matter how sound the reasoning looks. Or the Supreme Court may have taken the case on transfer, in which case the Court of Appeals opinion in front of you has been superseded by a decision you have not read yet.

The reasoning you are allowed to read but not allowed to cite

Rule 84.16(a) requires that every appellate decision in Missouri "shall be reduced to writing and filed in the cause." Rule 84.16(b) then carves out an exception that has no close equivalent in most states. Where all the judges agree to affirm and believe an opinion would have no precedential value, the panel may dispose of the appeal by memorandum decision or written order. It may do so only when the court unanimously finds that at least one of five listed circumstances exists and is dispositive: that a judgment reviewable under Rule 84.13(d) is supported by substantial evidence and is not against the weight of the evidence, citing <em>Murphy v. Carron</em>, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo. banc 1976); that findings in a Rule 24.035 or Rule 29.15 proceeding are not clearly erroneous; that the evidence supporting a jury verdict is not insufficient; that an administrative order is supported by competent and substantial evidence on the whole record; or that no error of law appears.

Here is the part that surprises people. The panel may attach a written statement setting out the basis for its decision. The rule then says that statement "shall be unanimous, shall not constitute a formal opinion of the court, shall not be reported, and shall not be cited or otherwise used in any case before any court." So the losing party receives a written explanation of exactly why they lost, signed off by every judge on the panel, and no one may ever put it in a brief. Not the parties, not a later litigant, not a judge.

For a researcher this means Missouri has a large body of appellate work that is invisible to precedent even though it is not secret. If you find a Missouri disposition that affirms without a reported opinion, there is no citable authority there, and no amount of quality in the reasoning changes that. Rule 84.16 was adopted June 13, 1979, effective January 1, 1980, and was last amended May 26, 2000, effective January 1, 2001. It is worth reading once in full if you practice in Missouri, because it also tells you what a memorandum decision must contain, which is how you recognize one on sight.

Reading and citing a Missouri decision correctly

Missouri appellate decisions are published in the South Western Reporter, so a modern Missouri case cites to S.W.3d. The court parenthetical is where Missouri carries information other states put elsewhere. A Supreme Court case decided by the full court carries "(Mo. banc)" with the year, and that banc notation is worth noticing rather than copying, because it tells you the whole court spoke. Court of Appeals decisions identify the district: "(Mo. App. E.D.)", "(Mo. App. W.D.)", or "(Mo. App. S.D.)". Since the district determines who is actually bound, dropping it makes the citation much less useful to the judge reading your brief. Our walkthrough on <a href="/blog/how-to-read-a-legal-citation">how to read a legal citation</a> covers the general structure.

The judges behind those parentheticals are selected under a system Missouri invented. Voters adopted the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan by initiative petition in November 1940, after a run of contentious judicial elections, and it became the model that many other states copied as merit selection. A nonpartisan commission screens applicants and sends the governor a short list, the governor appoints from it, and the judge later stands in a retention election. It governs the Supreme Court, the entire Court of Appeals, and six circuit courts: Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties in the Kansas City area, the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and Greene County around Springfield. Appellate judges serve twelve year terms and face mandatory retirement at seventy. Elsewhere in Missouri, circuit judges are still elected in contested partisan races, which is a difference worth knowing when you are reading trial court history in an appellate record.