Court Opinion

ID: 9766913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:02:41.797271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:27.171190
License: Public Domain

LEEDY, Judge
(dissenting).
I do not agree that this court has (or should have) jurisdiction over this appeal, and I therefore dissent from the holding of the principal opinion on that question. In my view, the “amount in dispute,” for appellate monetary jurisdictional purposes, is presently, and can only be, the sum awarded respondent (defendant) on her counterclaim, to wit, $100.
The principal opinion concedes that in a case of this nature there can be no such thing as simultaneous recoveries by both parties, but only by one or the other (because proof of one claim necessarily disproves the other), and the seven cases the opinion cites in support of that proposition so hold. And, by the same token, it is apparent that on this appeal there cannot be a reversal as to plaintiff’s cause of action and simultaneously an affirmance as to de*470fendant’s counterclaim, or vice versa. But the cited cases just referred to go further and declare the principle on which appellate jurisdiction in such cases (when dependent on the “amount in dispute”) is to be determined, i. e., it is fixed by the amount awarded the prevailing party, and not the aggregate of that sum and the amount prayed in the other action or counterclaim. This is the principal aspect of the cited cases, but even so the principal opinion does not mention the latter holding. Thus there is no express overruling of the cited cases, nor is it pointed out wherein they are in any respect erroneous. It says only this: “ [Nevertheless, in this case it is seen that, actually, the money amounts of the appellate-jurisdictional decisive ‘deny and grant’ monetary impact upon appellant of the appealed-from judgment in defendant-respondent’s favor and against plaintiff-appellant are in aggregate amount $22,650. The Supreme Court of Missouri has exclusive appellate jurisdiction of the cause on the ground of the amount in dispute. Const. Art. V, §§ 3 and 13, V.A.M.S.; § 477.040, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.” To say that “* * in this case it is seen,” etc., (both italiciza-tions the present writer’s), and considering the context in which the italicized words appear, makes such language susceptible to an interpretation that it was used by way of differentiating the case at bar from the others.
The facts on which the counterclaim was based, if believed by the jury (as they were), constituted a complete defense to plaintiff’s cause of action, and in this situation the issues arising both on plaintiff’s cause of action and on defendant’s counterclaim were merged in and resolved by the verdict in defendant’s favor on the counterclaim. The question on this appeal, then, is whether or not the $100 judgment entered on that verdict should be reversed because of allegedly erroneous instructions given on behalf of the defendant, and to the prejudice of plaintiff. Under the merger-of-issues doctrine here applicable, before plaintiff in this case would be entitled to any relief in this court, she must first show error was committed in the obtention of that judgment. Unless defendant’s judgment is warrantably reversed, plaintiff’s cause of action need not be considered as such because any error going to it inheres in the judgment on the counterclaim and is reviewable on consideration of the latter. If, as here contended, the $100 judgment was obtained because of erroneous instructions, such error is reviewable on appeal by that appellate court whose jurisdiction embraces such a sum — ours does not. If this is not to continue to be the rule, then the cases to the contrary should be explicitly overruled, and the matter finally set at rest, and not left in doubt or uncertainty. For my own part, I believe the cited cases declare a fair and sensible rule for the solution of the problem of monetary jurisdiction in cases of this kind. Our dockets are crowded enough with cases where the amounts in dispute are genuinely in excess of $15,000, and should not be burdened with cases wherein the jurisdictional amounts are illusory.