Legal Articles

Judicial Admissions

The central purpose of any trial is to determine what factually occurred and to determine who wins under the law based on those factual determinations. In litigation, a “judicial admission” is any act “done in the course of judicial proceedings that concedes for the purpose of litigation that a certain proposition is true.” Moore Automotive…

Sales Commission Violations

Missouri provides a statutory remedy for failure to pay sales commissions. “The sales commission statutes focus on the timely payment of sales commissions earned by a sales representative under contract with a principal.” Lapponese v. Carts of Colorado, Inc., 422 S.W.3d 396, 401 (Mo. App. E.D. 2013). The statute authorizes a recovery of attorney fees and…

Double Recoveries

The purpose of legal remedies — money damages or equitable relief — is to make you “whole.” But you can only be made “whole” once. Indeed, “a party cannot be compensated for the same injury twice.”  Norber v. Marcotte, 134 S.W.3d 651, 661 (Mo. App. E.D. 2004). In other words, a “party is not entitled…

Equitable Relief, Pleadings

At trial, a court is limited to the relief requested in the pleadings. The “pleadings” generally refers to the petition, answer, affirmative defenses, and counterclaim. While there are numerous exceptions to this, a prominent exception includes equitable relief. While Missouri courts are restrained from deciding an unpleaded fatual issue, a court of equity grant any…

Mootness, Exceptions

Courts generally shy away from rendering decisions in moot cases. A case is moot when “the question presented for decision seeks a judgment upon some matter which, if the judgment was rendered, would not have any practical effect upon any then existing controversy.” DCM v. Pemiscot County Juvenile Office, 578 S.W.3d 776, 780 (Mo. 2019). There…

Scroll to Top