Court Opinion

ID: 9858659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:34:26.571991+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:55:25.692945
License: Public Domain

PREWITT, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I would not dismiss the appeal and would determine the matter on the merits.
Although perhaps a judgment can be rendered orally, I do not think an oral pronouncement can or should be the “entry” of a judgment. It is the “entry” of judgment which starts the time within which a motion for new trial must be filed and the time that a judgment becomes final for appeal. See Rules 73.01(a)(3) and 81.05(a). This is the reason that I disagree with the principal opinion and the main reason that I disagree with Riek v. Riek, 708 S.W.2d 826 (Mo.App.1986), cited therein.
As the principal opinion states, there is a distinction between the judicial act of the court in rendering judgment and the ministerial act of entering it upon the record. See Allen v. Gibbons, 425 S.W.2d 243, 245-246 (Mo.App.1968); Rehm v. Fishman, 395 S.W.2d 251, 255 (Mo.App.1965). “Entry” contemplates a writing and is generally synonymous with “recording”. See Black’s Law Dictionary, 627 (rev. 4th ed. 1968). After a jury trial, judgment “is entered as of the date of the verdict.” Rule 78.04. No similar provision applies to nonjury trials. Consequently, in nonjury matters the date of entry of a judgment is the date the writing reflecting it is entered in the court’s records.
Under Rule 81.05(a), it is not the rendition, but “the entry of such judgment” which starts the time running to make the judgment final. Although Rule 81.05(a), in providing when a judgment becomes final when a motion for new trial is filed does not refer to the entry of a judgment, such an entry must still be required for a judgment to be final. Express reference to an “entry” is made earlier in the rule and there is no reason to require an entry for a judgment to become final when no motion for new trial is filed, but to dispense with the entry requirement for finality when a motion for new trial is filed.
Under the rules I do not see how a judgment can become final absent its entry. Because the notice of appeal was filed well within the prescribed time from the date of the entry of the judgment, I believe the appeal was timely.