Court Opinion

ID: 9675459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:54:32.271693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:34.764961
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge,
dissenting.
I adopt that portion of Judge Flanigan’s opinion in the Srpingfield District of the Court of Appeals which reads as follows:
“For his second point plaintiff claims that the trial court’s order of April 15 was erroneous ‘because Rule 67.01 permits a plaintiff in a civil action to dismiss his action without prejudice without a court order any time before the introduction of evidence.’ Plaintiff’s second point lacks merit for the reason that he did not avail himself of Rule 67.01. The peculiar document which he filed on March 24 did not purport to be a dismissal, and plaintiff makes no claim that it was a dismissal. It was a motion for an order of dismissal based on the anomalous ground that the defendant had filed a motion claiming that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction.
“The trial court cannot be convicted of error in overruling such a motion. The ground contained in the motion was an insufficient one. The duty of the court to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter springs only from that lack and not from the fact that defendant’s motion asserted the existence of such lack. Moreover, if plaintiff, before the introduction of evidence, desired a dismissal, he could have accomplished his purpose without court order and the court should not be convicted of error for overruling a motion which stated no valid ground and was totally unnecessary. If the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction (whether or not defendant’s motion so claimed) the court was under a duty to dismiss.”
I respectfully dissent.