Twenty firsts will make lasting impact

By Stephanie Maniscalco

In the last half of 2008, Missouri appellate courts limited the use of the Schoemehl case in the workers' compensation area, joined the growing number of states allowing the res ipsa loquitur doctrine in medical malpractice cases and most recently gave us a new tort cause of action for false light invasion of privacy.

These important decisions were the case stories of recent issues and are among the 229 summaries included in this special edition.

The courts handed down at least 20 cases since the end of June dealing with issues of first impression, including cases from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in which the court allowed derivative standing for creditors in bankruptcy proceedings and struck down derivative claims from parents in immigration cases.

The Court of Appeals also decided a variety of first impression cases that impact the practice of law in areas ranging from criminal procedure to tax law.

The Western District analyzed the sufficiency of DNA evidence in State v. Abdelmalik and issued a standard for Miranda warnings given belatedly in State v. Hughes.

The Eastern District handed down a long-awaited interpretation of Medicaid statutes to prohibit judicial review for eligibility claims in the Amos case and clarified the issue of notice in tax cases in the Daly case, which has already been cited in subsequent appellate decisions.

And the Southern District, for the first time in Meyers v. Wildcat Materials, held employers responsible for unauthorized medical treatment after neither party knew of the work-related nature of the injury.

Municipal defendants

The past six months also brought a flurry of cases that further defined the protections of sovereign immunity for municipal defendants.

The Western District sided with city defendants in two wrongful death cases. In State ex rel. City of Nevada v. Bickel, the court found the city was immune from an action by a plaintiff who sued the city for an allegedly negligent electrical inspection after her husband was electrocuted. In Gregg v. City of Kansas City, the city was protected by sovereign immunity, pending a determination of insurance, from a wrongful death case brought by the family of a victim shot by an airport security guard.

And in the Eastern District, Eureka was not liable for a tragic accident on a highway adjacent to an amusement park in Vonder Haar v. Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc., and City of Eureka, in which the plaintiff could not show that traffic congestion created a public nuisance.

Most significant, in Topps v. City of Country Club Hills, the Eastern District found that the city's purchase of insurance did not waive immunity for a whistleblower claim brought by a former city clerk. The decision prompted the court to express concern that the law leaves city employees in a precarious position with a "very real potential for abuse by municipal governments."

City defendants were not quite as successful outside the negligence arena.

The Eastern District held that a city's separation agreement with a city administrator was invalid because the city failed to meet statutory written authorization requirements in Moynihan v. City of Manchester, et al.

And finally, the 8th Circuit reversed a dismissal in favor of a city in a First Amendment case, brought by plaintiffs who were denied a sign application for a mural of a red circle with a slash and the words "End Eminent Domain Abuse" in Neighborhood Enterprises, Inc. v. City of St. Louis.

Summaries of these cases and many more can be found in this special end-of-the-year issue. As always subscribers can find the complete digest of any summary by searching the Missouri Lawyers Weekly archives at www.molawyersweekly.com.