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

Heading: The Role of Federal Decisions

Text: From the earliest days of summary judgment practice in Missouri, this Court has stated that the federal decisions construing Rule 56 [of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure] are particularly persuasive in applying the Missouri rule [74.04]. Cooper, 376 S.W.2d at 228. See also Elliott, 423 S.W.2d at 835. When Cooper and Elliott were decided, courts applied the federal rule and the Missouri rule nearly identically. Missouri rule language requiring unassailable proof did no more than acknowledge federal rules decisions on summary judgments to that effect. Cooper, 376 S.W.2d at 229. See, e.g., Armco Steel Co. v. Realty Investment Co., 273 F.2d 483, 484-485 (8th Cir.1960) (summary judgment not proper except where [the movant] is entitled to its allowance beyond all doubt; only where the conceded facts establish [the movant's] right with such clarity as to have no room for controversy; with all reasonable doubts touching the existence of a genuine issue ... resolved against the movant). [Emphasis added.] Despite the apparent commonality of these summary judgment rules, however, the systems of federal pleading and Missouri pleading which underlie those rules proceed from antithetical philosophical bases. The modern Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are founded on notice pleading principles. A plaintiff need only plead sufficient information to enable the defendant to understand the claim being pursued. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47-48, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102-03, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). The federal rules assume that discovery will narrow and identify the issues for trial. Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 500-501, 67 S.Ct. 385, 388-89, 91 L.Ed. 451 (The new rules ... restrict the pleadings to the task of general notice-giving and invest the deposition-discovery process with a vital role in the preparation for trial). Time has revealed, however, that the change to notice pleading in the federal system has produced a result in summary judgment practice incompatible with our fact-pleading regime. The United States Supreme Court has fashioned a new role for summary judgment as a by-product of its notice pleading system. Before the shift to notice pleading accomplished by the Federal Rules, motions to dismiss a complaint or to strike a defense were the principal tools by which factually insufficient claims or defenses could be isolated and prevented from going to trial with the attendant unwarranted consumption of public and private resources. But with the advent of notice pleading, the motion to dismiss seldom fulfills this function any more, and its place has been taken by the motion for summary judgment. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554-55, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). [Emphasis added.] This new role for federal summary judgment was exhaustively articulated in what has come to be known as the Celotex trilogy. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Missouri is not a notice pleading state. Beginning with Article IV of the Civil Code of 1849, requiring that the petition contain a plain and concise statement of the facts constituting a cause of action, [emphasis added], Missouri has remained a fact pleading state. Given a clear opportunity in 1942 to adopt the federal system of notice pleading, the General Assembly purposefully avoided this approach and, not coincidentally, any procedure permitting summary judgment. The Civil Code, as adopted, requires that the petition contain a short and plain statement of the facts showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. § 509.050.1(1), RSMo Supp.1992; Rule 55.05(1). Compare Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) (petition shall set forth a short and plain statement of the claim). Most recently, the Civil Rules Study Committee of this Court has completed its massive task of proposing revisions to our Civil Rules and did not propose any change to notice pleading for Missouri. In Missouri, motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim have substantially more bite under our fact pleading rules than they have under the federal system of notice pleading. Compare Sofka v. Thal, 662 S.W.2d 502, 509 (Mo. banc 1983) (where petition contains only conclusions and neither the ultimate facts nor any allegations from which to infer those facts, motion to dismiss is properly granted), with Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47-48, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102-03, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957) (lack of specific facts does not invite dismissal so long as complaint give[s] the defendant fair notice of what the plaintiff's claim is and the grounds upon which it rests). As there is no need for our Rule 74.04 to fill in for an ineffectual motion to dismiss, the role of summary judgment in Missouri differs significantly from that in current federal practice. Where the federal courts now use discovery to identify the triable issues, Conley, 355 U.S. at 48 n. 9, 78 S.Ct. at 103 n. 9 such has always been the role of the pleadings in Missouri. Where the federal courts now use discovery to identify the facts upon which the plaintiff's claim rests, id.; Celotex, 477 U.S. at 327, 106 S.Ct. at 2554-55 such has always been the role of pleadings in Missouri. Finally, where the federal courts rely on summary judgment procedures to dispose of baseless claims, Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323-24, 106 S.Ct. at 2552-53, such continues to be the role of motions to dismiss in Missouri. In sum, Missouri and federal summary judgment practice correspond only in language, not in function. The purpose of summary judgment under Missouri's fact-pleading regime is to identify cases (1) in which there is no genuine dispute as to the facts and (2) the facts as admitted show a legal right to judgment for the movant. Because federal summary judgment serves a different purpose, it is difficult to view the federal cases construing the federal rule as particularly persuasive any longer; thirty years of experience within our own system of fact pleading is sufficient to define the scope of summary judgment under our Rule 74.04 and its role in our pretrial practice. Therefore, federal cases are to be considered no more, though certainly no less, persuasive than any other nonbinding authority in the determination of summary judgment motions which are, by their very nature, susceptible primarily of a case-by-case analysis. [1]