Court Opinion

ID: 9676728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:31:13.129315+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:50.559213
License: Public Domain

MOTION FOR REHEARING AND APPLICATION FOR TRANSFER TO SUPREME COURT
Husband has filed a Motion For Rehearing in which he alleges several reasons why we should reconsider our opinion or transfer the case to the Supreme Court. We feel compelled to respond to one of the allegations of that motion.
In footnote 1 we noted that Husband had failed to show that his Motion For New Trial should have been sustained on any basis other than that specified by the trial court because a trial transcript was not included in the legal file. He correctly points out that he filed a motion to permit the preparation and filing of a transcript of the entire trial. He now argues that he attempted to file the entire record to accommodate consideration of the other allegations of his Motion For New Trial.
The trial court entered the Supplemental Findings Of Fact and Conclusions Of Law from which this appeal flows on July 7, 1992; a Notice of Appeal was filed by Wife on July 16, 1992, appealing only from the trial court’s order sustaining paragraph 7 *238of Husband’s Motion For New Trial; Wife’s attorney ordered the transcript of only the hearing on the Motion For New Trial on July 29, 1992, sending a copy of the request to Husband’s attorney; the transcript of the hearing on the Motion For New Trial was served on Husband’s attorney on October 16, 1992; on November 24, 1992, the executed Approval Of Transcript by Husband’s attorney was filed; and on January 27, 1993, Wife’s Brief was filed in this court in which it was pointed out that the trial court sustained the Motion For New Trial on the basis of only paragraph 7 (appearance of improprieties) and Husband had not appealed denial of the other grounds. On February 26, 1993, Husband’s attorney filed an Application For Extension Of Time To File Respondent’s Brief in which there was no mention of any need for an additional transcript as a part of the legal file, and which recited that a rough draft of Husband’s brief was then being completed. This court sustained Husband’s application and extended the time for Husband to file his brief until March 26, 1993. On March 24, 1993, Husband filed a Motion For Extension Of Time To File Brief where, for the first time, he mentions the need for a transcript of the entire trial. In that motion, however, there was no indication that the entire transcript had been ordered, how long it would take to prepare, or the amount of time being requested. That motion was denied, but this court, on its own, granted Husband an additional thirty days to file his brief. When Husband filed his brief, no points or arguments were made that any of the other allegations of the Motion For New Trial should have been sustained. Rather, Husband’s argument was that the trial court correctly sustained his Motion For New Trial, partly because the other errors allegedly committed by the trial court in its decree were evidence of prejudice flowing from the contacts between Wife and the court.
If Husband was dissatisfied with the record on appeal, he could have filed additional parts of the record deemed necessary within the time allowed for filing his brief. Rule 81.12(c). By approving the transcript on appeal, the parties represent that it includes all of the record necessary in the cause. State v. Covington, 557 S.W.2d 59 (Mo.App.1977). Where an insufficient transcript is filed, evidentiary omissions are to be taken in favor of the trial court’s action and unfavorable to the complaining party. Flora v. Flora, 834 S.W.2d 822, 823 (Mo.App.1992).
Rule 81.19 gives this eourt discretion to enlarge the time for filing the record on appeal. In the instant case, Husband’s attorney did not seek leave for additional time until after the events described above. Under these circumstances, Husband’s Motion For Extension Of Time to permit preparation of the entire transcript was denied as an exercise of this court’s discretion. When Husband first sought leave to obtain the transcript of the entire trial, it was over eight months after the court’s Supplemental Findings Of Fact And Conclusions of Law was entered and over four years after the action was originally filed in the circuit court.
Husband’s Motion For Rehearing And Application To Transfer To Supreme Court of Missouri is denied.
FLANIGAN and PREWITT, JJ., concur.