Opinion ID: 1657369
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History of Summary Judgment

Text: In 1849, Missouri became the second state in the union to adopt a comprehensive civil code. The Missouri General Assembly adopted the Code of 1849, based on New York's Field Code, to modernize procedures and promote a more efficient system of justice. See Mo.Laws 1848-49, pp. 73-109 (Practice in Courts of Justice). The code eliminated archaic forms of common law pleading, substituting instead a system of code pleading, or fact pleading. The code required that the first pleading in a civil case contain a statement of the facts constituting a cause of action ... in ordinary and concise language ... [and] in such a manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended. Mo.Laws 1848-49, art. VI, § 1, p. 79. In 1943, prompted by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the legislature requested that this Court propose appropriate revisions to Missouri's civil code. With advice from The Missouri Bar, this Court submitted proposed revisions incorporating many of the federal rules. Atkinson, Missouri's New Civil Procedure: A Critique of the Process of Procedural Improvement, 9 Mo.L.Rev. 47, 48-52 (1944). Those recommendations included the adoption of the federal system of notice pleading and a summary judgment procedure substantially similar to Federal Rule 56. Id. at 58-59, 62-63; Henry, Proposed Code of Civil Procedure, 7 Mo. L.Rev. 1, 13-18 (1942). Despite adopting the substance of many of the federal rules, the legislature chose to retain Missouri's fact pleading approach and deleted from the code revisions providing for summary judgment. See §§ 506.010, et seq., RSMo 1986 (The Civil Code of Missouri); Atkinson, 9 Mo.L.Rev. at 62-63. The 1943 Act granted this Court the power to promulgate rules for all courts of the state so long as the rules did not contravene statutes or modify existing substantive rights. 1943 Mo.L. 353, § 10.1. In 1945, the voters of Missouri broadened this power and raised it to constitutional dimensions. Article V, Section 5 of the 1945 Constitution permits this Court to adopt rules governing the practice, procedure and pleading in our courts so long as they did not change substantive rights, or the law relating to ... the right of trial by jury. This permits the court to adopt rules contrary to procedural statutes, which was not permitted by the 1943 act. In 1959, pursuant to this authority, this Court adopted Rule 74.04 to permit summary judgments. As we will show, however, application of this new rule here proceeded as though there were no difference between notice pleading and fact pleading. See II, B, 3, infra.