Court Opinion

ID: 9646402
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:58:54.159282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:37.881456
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The time is totally inappropriate for this Court to construe accidental injury, see § 287.020(2), RSMo 1978, to mean any “job related” injury. Such an expansion of coverage by judicial fiat can only raise already oppressive insurance premiums and, as a result, increase the cost of doing business in this state.
The continuing expenditures of time and resources made by the legislative and executive branches to attract jobs and business to the state reflect the degree of Missouri’s involvement in the “war among the states for jobs and business.” See Schellhardt, War Among the States For Jobs and Business Becomes Ever Fiercer, Wall St.J., Feb. 14, 1983, at 1, col. 6. Today’s decision only frustrates the attempt to stimulate growth and improve the economic condition of the state.
Courts can no longer ignore economic reality. The present economic conditions mandate judicial economic responsibility. See Bass v. Nooney Co., 646 S.W.2d 765, 774 (Mo. bane 1983) (Welliver, J., dissenting), decided today.