Case Name: MARY E. WILKERSON, Appellant, v. ANDREW J. McGHEE, Respondent
Court: St. Louis Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Missouri
Decision Date: 1912-02-06
Citations: 163 Mo. App. 356
Docket Number: 
Parties: MARY E. WILKERSON, Appellant, v. ANDREW J. McGHEE, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Missouri Appeal Reports
Volume: 163
Pages: 356–361

Head Matter:
MARY E. WILKERSON, Appellant, v. ANDREW J. McGHEE, Respondent.
St. Louis Court of Appeals,
February 6, 1912.
1. OPINION OF SPRINGFIELD COURT OF APPEALS ADOPTED. The opinion of the Springfield Court of Appeals in this ease (153 Mo. App. 343) is adopted as the opinion of the court. [REYNOLDS, P. X, dissents.]
2. MALICIOUS PROSECUTION: Pleading: Probable Cause: Conclusions. In an action for malicious prosecution, the petition alleged that defendant, maliciously intending to injure plaintiff and without reasonable or probable cause therefor, appeared before the grand jury and charged plaintiff with having committed a misdemeanor; that defendant was instrumental in instigating and pressing said charge against plaintiff before the grand jury, and that he maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause produced and furnished the names of witnesses, who testified before the grand jury, and upon whose testimony the grand jury returned an indictment against plaintiff, upon which she was arrested; that plaintiff appeared in court and filed a motion to quash the indictment, which was sustained, and plaintiff was “fully acquitted and discharged by said court and that said prosecution was thereby wholly and entirely terminated;” and that by reason of said “wanton and malicious prosecution” plaintiff was damaged, etc. Held, by REYNOLDS, P. J., dissenting, that a demurrer to the petition was properly sustained, for the reason the indictment itself constituted, prima facie, probable cause for the prosecution, to overcome which presumption it devolved upon the pleader to aver that the indictment was procured by false testimony offered by defendant, known to him to be false, or which, at least, he had no probable cause to believe was true, and the averment that the prosecution or arrest was “without probable cause” is a statement of a mere conclusion and is not sufficient to overcome the presumption.
Appeal from Cape Girardeau Court of Common Pleas. —Hon. Robert G. Ranney, Judge.
Reversed and remanded. Certified to Supreme Court.
Oliver é Oliver for appellant.
T. D. Hines for respondent.

Opinion:
CAULFIELD, J.
The appeal in this case was prosecuted to this court, hut was thereafter transferred by it to the Springfield Court of Appeals under the provisions of the act of the Legislature, approved June 12, 1909. [See Laws of Missouri, 1909, p. 396; see, also, section 3939, R. S. 1909.] In due time the cause was disposed of by the Springfield Court of Appeals through an opinion prepared by Judge Gray of that court, as will appear by reference to Wilkerson v. McGhee, 153 Mo. App. 343, 134 S. W. 595. Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared the said legislative act, which purported to authorize the transfer of cases from this court to the Springfield Court, to be unconstitutional. The cause was thereafter transferred by the Springfield Court of Appeals to this court on the theory that the jurisdiction of the appeal continued to reside here and the proceedings had in the Springfield Court with reference thereto were coram non judice.
The case has been argued and submitted here and duly considered. Upon reading the record and considering the arguments, we are persuaded that the opinion of the Springfield Court, above referred to, properly disposes of the controversy, and it is adopted as the opinion of this court. ' For the reason given in that opinion the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded. It is so ordered. Nortoni, J., concurs. Reynolds, P. J., dissents, and being of the opinion that the decision is in conflict with that of the Supreme Court in Brown v. The City of Cape Girardeau, 90 Mo. 377, 2 S. W. 302, asks that this case be certified to the Supreme Court, which is accordingly done.