Court Opinion

ID: 9778100
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:32:33.457805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:03.755621
License: Public Domain

BILLINGS, Judge,
dissenting.
Because I continue to believe that the use and abuse of the extraordinary writ of prohibition in a case such as this violates the Missouri Constitution concerning the right of appeal, and further encourages the corruption of this ancient but limited extraordinary writ, I must dissent.
The right of appeal is statutory in this state and this Court is specifically forbidden to tamper with the right of appeal by our Constitution. Mo. Const., art. V, § 5. And when we, under the guise of the writ of prohibition, allow and permit an interlocutory appeal in a pending case, we are treading on legislative grounds and closing our eyes to the constitutional mandate.
Here, it is conceded that the lower tribunal has jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter, and, I submit, the requisite jurisdiction to err in its rulings. Any such errors are subject to review in due course through the statutory right of appeal. The alleged delay, expense and hardship of proceeding in an orderly and legally authorized fashion does not and cannot justify the use of prohibition for an unauthorized interlocutory appeal.
I would quash our preliminary order. State ex rel. Morasch v. Kimberlin, 654 S.W.2d 889 (Mo. banc 1983); State ex rel. Hannah v. Seier, 654 S.W.2d 894, 896 (Mo. banc 1983) (Billings, J., concurring). See Tuchler, Discretionary Interlocutory Review in Missouri: Judicial Abuse of the Writ? 40 Mo.L.Rev. 577 (1975).