Estep v. Atkinson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““As reported earlier, when Plaintiffs and lawyer Bruffett appeared in the trial court November 12, 1992, they — and the trial court — proceeded with trial (albeit uncontested). Plaintiffs did not ask the trial court to enter an interlocutory order of default against Defendant per Rule 74.05(a), and the trial court did not do so. Plaintiffs presented their evidence on the merits and the trial court found in their favor.” “From Mahurin v. St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, 809 S.W.2d 418, 421 [2, 3] (Mo.App. W.D.1991), we learn: ‘when an answer is required but not filed, when a cause is tried as if an answer had been filed, on appeal the matter is treated as if an answer traversing the allegations of the petition was filed. Estate of Schubert v. Holleman, 683 S.W.2d 324, 325 (Mo.App.1984). This is not to say that the filing of an answer is not required; it is to say that enforcement of the requirement of an answer is waived unless the opposing party invokes its enforcement by timely and proper action. Id. at 325-26 .’ “Here, Plaintiffs never claimed there was a default nihil dicit because Defendant failed to answer their amended petition. Plaintiffs, their lawyer, and the trial court proceeded as though Defendant had answered. Applying Mahurin , we treat this appeal as if he had. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court correctly applied the law in ruling that Defendant’s motion to set the judgment aside was not governed by Rule 74.05, but instead by Rule 74.06.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Weidner v. Anderson