Court Opinion

ID: 9773947
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:04:53.71635+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:59.790952
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM:
Defendants’ motion for rehearing was received by our clerk on the seventeenth day after our opinion was handed down. It may have been mailed by defendants before that day, but mailing does not constitute filing. This, because a motion is “filed” when it is delivered to the proper officer and lodged in his office. Byers v. Zuspann, Mo.App., 257 S.W.2d 384 [2]; Tabb v. McGinley, Mo.App., 313 S.W.2d 745 [1]. Civil Rule 83.16, V.A.M.R., is cast in mandatory language. It declares that a motion for rehearing “must be filed within fifteen days after the opinion of the court shall be filed.” Neither counsel nor this court is at liberty to overlook that limitation. Hood v. M.F.A. Mutual Ins. Co., Mo.App., 379 S.W.2d 806 [13]. The defendants’ purported motion for rehearing should be ordered stricken.
However, in view of the vigor of defendants’ challenge of our opinion, we have examined it ex gratia and add the following comments. The defendants’ main contention is that our statement of facts says that their grader was still in motion when the two vehicles collided. That was the only direct evidence, but it came from plaintiff’s witness. The defendants’ evidence would support an inference that their grader had just come to a stop when the vehicles collided. We have modified our opinion accordingly by deleting from page 615 the words “was still in motion” and substituting therefor the words “had just come to a stop.” We have reconsidered our opinion in the light of the altered statement of fact without reaching a different result. The crucial issue was the failure of the driver of defendants’ grader to keep a lookout for plaintiff; and our finding that he was contributorily negligent as a matter of law is not altered by the challenged fact. So, if permitted to review defendants’ motion for rehearing on its merits, we would overrule it; but since it was not filed within the permitted time, our order is that the motion be stricken and that our opinion be modified.