Aman Collection Service, Inc. v. Burgess

612 S.W.2d 405, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2645
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 2, 1981
DocketNo. WD 31163
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 612 S.W.2d 405 (Aman Collection Service, Inc. v. Burgess) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aman Collection Service, Inc. v. Burgess, 612 S.W.2d 405, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2645 (Mo. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

WASSERSTROM, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff sues under Section 511.760, RSMo 1978 and Rule 74.79 to register in Missouri a South Dakota judgment obtained by its assignor South Dakota Wheat Growers Association (“Wheat Growers”). Each party moved for summary judgment, and the trial court entered judgment for plaintiff. Defendant Burgess appeals. We affirm.

In 1977, Wheat Growers entered into negotiations with “Dako Products Company of Independence, Jackson County, Missouri,” for Dako to undertake national distribution as Wheat Growers’ sales representative of certain products. On October 21, 1977, a proposed agreement between the parties was signed by Burgess in the following manner: “Robert V. Burgess, Dako Products Company, Party of the first part,” and Burgess’ signature was acknowledged before a Notary Public in Jackson County, Missouri. Paragraph 5 of that document provided that Dako was privileged to assign the agreement “to such business organizations as he may form for the purpose of marketing Second parties [sic] product” (emphasis supplied).

On March 6, 1979, Wheat Growers filed suit in a South Dakota circuit court against “Dako Products Company,” in which it was alleged that Wheat Growers had delivered merchandise from a subsidiary to defendant on which there remained an unpaid balance of $12,834.02. Summons was issued and forwarded for service to the Circuit Court Administrator in Jackson County, Missouri. An affidavit of service was executed by a Missouri deputy in which he stated that he had executed service “by leaving a true and correct copy at a business office of the within named Corporation Dako Products Co., with Bob Burgess as_of the within named corporation, and person in charge of said business office at 10914 E. Linwood, KCMO.”

That affidavit of service was forwarded to South Dakota. Based thereon the South Dakota court entered default judgment on April 25, 1979, as follows: “[I]t is hereby adjudged that South Dakota Wheat Growers Association, the Plaintiff, recover of the Defendant, Dako Products Company, the sum of $12,834.02 plus costs of $28.00, for a total of $12,862.02 plus interest.”

On June 20, 1979, plaintiff filed the present suit in the Missouri circuit court. The parties in the Missouri action are Aman Collection Service, Inc., plaintiff, vs. Robert [407]*407V. Burgess d/b/a Dako Products Company, defendant. The petition stated that defendant Burgess, doing business as Dako Products Company, had failed to pay the South Dakota judgment or any part thereof; that the South Dakota judgment had been assigned by Wheat Growers to plaintiff; and the petition prayed for the registration of the South Dakota judgment as a final personal judgment of the Missouri court. Burgess filed an answer in which he denied that he was at any time a party to or served as a defendant in the South Dakota action. However, he further stated in his answer that he attached thereto and made a part thereof “a Summons which was received at his home in the name of Dako Products Company.”

On July 28, 1979, Burgess filed a motion for summary judgment which pointed out that the South Dakota judgment shows that the only defendant in that cause was Dako Products Company and that nowhere in the judgment nor in the body of the complaint filed in the South Dakota court was there any allegation that Robert V. Burgess did business as Dako Products Company. The motion further alleged that therefore the “Request for Registration seeks to extend the judgment in the South Dakota Court against Dako Products Company, in the courts of Missouri against Robert V. Burgess and beyond the scope in Entry of Judgment by the South Dakota Court, an act which is in excess of the jurisdiction of this Court and is beyond the rights of the judgment creditor.” That motion was unsupported by any affidavits or documentation other than the records theretofore filed by the plaintiff.

On August 6, 1979, plaintiff filed its motion for summary judgment, and this motion was supported by an affidavit and further documentation. These documents included the assignment of the judgment by Wheat Growers to Aman Collection Service, Inc.; the contract of October 21, 1977; and a certificate from the Missouri Secretary of State stating that there were no records in his office which show that Dako Products Company is or ever had been registered as a foreign or domestic corporation or under the Fictitious Name Act. The affidavit was that of Larry Wheeting, former manager of Wheat Growers Feed and Seed Division. Wheeting in his affidavit stated that Robert V. Burgess “represented to me that he was doing business as Dako Products Company and that he wished merchandise sent to him and his customers in that name, Dako Products Company. He indicated to me he would be responsible for all charges with respect to goods shipped to Dako Products Company.” Wheeting further stated that Burgess executed in his presence the agreement dated October 21, 1977.

On August 9,1979, the trial court entered summary judgment for plaintiff, including findings as follows: “The Court, having reviewed the evidence, hereby finds * * * that Defendant Robert V. Burgess was doing business and is the same as Dako Products Company and is personally indebted to Aman Collection Service, Inc., in the sum of $12,862.02 * * * under the judgment entered April 25, 1979; * * *.”

For his points on this appeal, Burgess contends: (1) that the trial court erroneously assumed that the South Dakota court intended its judgment to mean that Robert V. Burgess and Dako Products Co. were one and the same person; and (2) that the court below erred in granting summary judgment because there remained substantial questions of fact and Burgess was denied the right to file counter-affidavits.

I.

The essence of Burgess’ first point is that the South Dakota judgment was solely against Dako and that it did not refer to and could not have any effect upon Burgess himself. He contends that plaintiff improperly seeks to have the Missouri courts look behind and amend the South Dakota judgment. That argument mistakes the result of misnaming a party defendant and the effect of entering a judgment pursuant to such misnomer.

The controlling principle is that a misnomer is not fatal, and the judgment creditor may show who the true defendant [408]*408is and may proceed to enforce the judgment against that true defendant.1 The reasoning behind this principle of law is well stated in the leading case Parry v. Woodson, 33 Mo. 347, 348 (1863):

“A name is a means of identity; but the change of the name or the application of a wrong name does not change the thing identified. It is not the name that is sued by the person to whom it is applied. Process served on a man by a wrong name is as really served on him as if it had been served on him by his right name, and if in such case he fail to appear, or appearing fail to object that he is sued by the wrong name, and judgment be rendered against him by such name, he is as much bound by the judgment as if it had been rendered against him by his right name.

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Bluebook (online)
612 S.W.2d 405, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aman-collection-service-inc-v-burgess-moctapp-1981.