Court Opinion

ID: 9645022
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:10:47.591291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:21.936706
License: Public Domain

BILLINGS, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the principal opinion, reserving for another day the soundness of State ex rel. Hiett v. Simmons, 112 Mo.App. 535, 87 S.W. 35 (1905).
I readily agree that Corcoran and Martin should no longer be followed. The State, in this proceeding, as in Corcoran and Martin, seeks to enlist our aid in circumventing the existing law of no right of appeal by the vehicle of an extraordinary writ.
In my view we should not continue to countenance piecemeal appeals by the use and abuse of the extraordinary writs of prohibition and mandamus under the guise of “superintending control” — whatever that term means. And, we should not hesitate to send a strong and clear signal that a trial court with jurisdiction has the ability to commit error and any such error, if the need arises, will be reviewed upon appeal.
The law review article by Professor Tu-chler clearly demonstrates the abuse of the extraordinary writs of prohibition and mandamus — “prodamus” or “mandhibition”. In his introductory remarks, the author writes:
Missouri’s constitution distinguishes between appellate jurisdiction, which is subject to legislative regulation, and superintending control, which is not. Limited appeals are provided by statutes which have been construed narrowly by Missouri’s courts. Superintending control includes authority to issue original remedial writs (e.g., mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus, etc.) in a theoretically limited class of cases, but in no event is there authority to use the writs as substitutes for appeal. When a claim of trial court error is made in a petition for a writ, however, the temptation is always present to use superintending control to hear the claim and correct the error, regardless of whether the error can be raised effectively on appeal. As a result, and especially in cases where no appeal is available, writ-issuing authority has been used by Missouri’s appellate courts to provide interlocutory review of attractive claims of error.
The constitutional limits on judicial authority to effect appellate jurisdiction are violated by over-generous use of the writ. The costs involved in extensive interlocutory review deserve recognition and may outweigh any benefits derived from early review of claims of trial error.
40 Mo.L.Rev. at 577 (emphasis added).
While it is true that the appellate courts of this State end up denying the vast majority of petitions for such writs, the fact remains that an inordinate amount of judi*897cial time is consumed in considering the petitions,1 trials are further delayed, the expense of litigation is increased, and the majority of alleged errors are “curable by subsequent events at trial or by appeal.” 40 Mo.L.Rev. at 625.

. In 1975 a total of 74 petitions for prohibition or mandamus were filed in this Court. In 1982 the number of such petitions had increased to 241.