Court Opinion

ID: 9772475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:19:17.531303+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:44.800683
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
PER CURIAM.
The defendant-appellant, who appealed from the order of the trial court granting a new trial to plaintiff on the issues of negligence under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, has filed no motion for a rehearing against the order and judg' ment of this court affirming the order of the trial court granting the new trial to plaintiff, but the plaintiff-respondent has filed a motion for rehearing and again asks this court to sustain the order of the trial court upon another and additional ground, to wit, on the ground that the trial court erred in denying a new trial to plaintiff on the issues under the Boiler Inspection Act and to hold that a new trial was properly granted to plaintiff for that additional reason. Re*122spondent urges that under the general rule of affirming orders granting new trials on any theory shown by the record, regardless of the reason or theory given by the trial court, respondents in other cases have been permitted to urge grounds and theories impliedly or expressly denied by the trial court when it granted the new trial. See Craton v. Huntzinger, Mo.Sup., 187 S.W. 48, 53; Thurman v. Wells, Mo.App., 251 S.W. 75, 77; Foley v. Union House Furnishing Co., 228 Mo.App. 1063, 60 S.W.2d 725, 729; Kersten v. Hines, 283 Mo. 623, 223 S.W. 586, 589; Smith v. Kansas City Public Service Co., 328 Mo. 979, 43 S.W.2d 548; 66 C.J.S. New Trial § 84, p. 263. Compare: Sapp v. Key, Mo.Sup., 287 S.W.2d 775, and Williams v. Kansas City, Mo.Sup., 274 S.W.2d 261. However, it is only where the appellate court finds the trial court erred in denying a new trial on the ground urged that the appellate court’s holding, on such issue, would support the order of the trial court granting the new trial. Where the appellate court agrees with the trial court in not granting a new trial on certain specified grounds and agrees with the trial court on the reasons assigned for granting a new trial, it is unnecessary for the appellate court, on an appeal by the defendant from an order granting plaintiff a new trial, to review or determine issues, which if determined in the manner the appellate court would determine them, would not support the order granting a new trial to the plaintiff.
In this case, respondent argues that plaintiff was entitled to a new trial on the issues under the Boiler Inspection Act, as well as on the issues under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act; and that a holding to that effect would further support the order granting the new trial to plaintiff. We fully agree with the last statement, but if, on the other hand, this court is of the opinion that the trial court was correct in not granting plaintiff a new trial on the Boiler Inspection Act issues, a ruling on that issue is unnecessary to a determination of the issues presented by the appeal and need not be ruled. A divisional opinion supporting the order granting a new trial on the theory mentioned by respondent failed of adoption by the unanimous vote of the court en banc and a ruling on that issue would not support the order of the trial court granting the new trial to plaintiff, hence we do not rule it here.
Respondents’ motion for rehearing, or in the alternative for modification and clarification of opinion is overruled.