Rogers v. Hickerson

716 S.W.2d 439, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4552
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 14, 1986
Docket13947
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 716 S.W.2d 439 (Rogers v. Hickerson) 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
Rogers v. Hickerson, 716 S.W.2d 439, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4552 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

TITUS, Presiding Judge.

Defendants-appellants Henry and Elsie Hickerson, husband and wife, appeal from a judgment entered in a court-tried case for plaintiffs-respondents Richard and Bonnie Rogers, husband and wife, and Jack and Bernice Payne, husband and wife, d/b/a P & R Enterprises. Plaintiffs sought to recover for fraud in the sale of a parcel of real estate located by Lake of the Ozarks, Camden County, Missouri. Actual damages were awarded in the amount of $5,476.05, and punitive damages based on financial statements provided by defendants to the court were awarded in the amount of $7,500.00. The judge further ordered that defendants were to satisfy the judgment by conveying the assets shown on their financial statements to plaintiffs in the order selected by plaintiffs on the same basis of value as stated in defendants’ financial statements until the judgment was satisfied. In addition, the judge ordered defendants not to convey, mortgage or otherwise burden any of the assets listed on the said financial statements until the judgments were satisfied in full.

The first question we must address is whether the judgment entered on Counts I *442 and II of plaintiffs’ petition was final and appealable under Rule 81.06 1 . The court below ordered that Count III of plaintiffs’ petition be “severed for purposes of trial” and ordered Counts I and II be tried “prior to Count III.” It then proceeded to trial on Counts I and II and entered its judgment on those two counts without a jury. The court did not designate whether its judgment on Counts I and II was to be final or interlocutory. Under Rule 81.06 the judgment entered on Counts I and II “shall not be deemed final for purposes of appeal ... unless specifically so designated by the court in the judgment entered.” However, the judgment entered will be deemed final for purposes of appeal if Counts I and II are for “an entirely separate and independent claim unrelated to” Count III.

Count III, brought solely by Richard Rogers, incorporated by reference the allegations of Counts I and II. Plaintiff Richard Rogers alleged in Count III that as a direct result of Henry Hickerson’s telling him, at a time when he was recovering from a heart attack and heart operation, that his trailer was on someone else’s land he suffered severe emotional and physical problems. These, according to Count III, resulted in permanent disabilities and damage to him in the sum of $12,000.00. Count I sought recovery for fraud in the sale of a parcel of real estate and Count II sought punitive damages for the said fraud. Counts I and II were brought by all plaintiffs herein.

In a sense all of the plaintiffs’ counts arose out of the same transaction, occurrences and subject matter, to wit the fraudulent representations of the defendants. In addition, the three counts are not entirely separate as there are common questions of law and fact. Also plaintiff Richard Rogers is a plaintiff in all three counts, though he is the only plaintiff in Count III. However, Rule 81.06 is not meant to turn on similarities of this ilk. Crenshaw v. Great Central Ins. Co., 527 S.W.2d 1, 3 (Mo.App.1975).

A judgment disposing of claims arising from the same factual predicate as another claim in the action is to be deemed final for purposes of appeal if the remaining claim or count is independent of the claims on which judgment is entered. The test therefore being one of “dependency.” Luecke v. Mo. Dept. of Conservation, 674 S.W.2d 691, 692 (Mo.App.1984).

Just as in Crenshaw, the disposition of the remaining count, sounding in personal injury to Mr. Rogers, is not dependent upon the outcome or final disposition of Count I, an action for fraud, or Count II which seeks punitives for the said fraud. The court nisi has entered a judgment disposing of all the issues raised in Counts I and II. For these reasons the judgment on Counts I and II must be deemed final for purposes of appeal for “it is apparent that the order entered was intended as a judgment separate and apart from any relief that thereafter might be given on the” remaining count. Crenshaw, 527 S.W.2d at 3. The “record indicates an exercise of discretion in favor of a separate judgment and nothing appears to indicate an intention that the judgment should be interlocutory or that it was to be held in abeyance until” the other count is determined. Id. In this situation the separate judgment on Counts I and II will be construed as an order for a separate judgment for purposes of appeal under Rule 81.06.

Before continuing, we note that in a court-tried case the trial court will be sustained unless we find no substantial evidence to support it, it is against the weight of the evidence, it erroneously declares the law, or it erroneously applies the law. We will set aside a decree or judgment for being against the weight of the evidence only with caution and upon a firm belief that it is wrong. Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32[1,2] (Mo. banc 1976). Further, the trial court when sitting as the *443 trier of fact may believe all, part, or none of the testimony of any witness. Best v. Culhane, 677 S.W.2d 390, 393[3] (Mo.App. 1984).

With this perspective in mind, the evidence in part tended to show that the real estate, referred to at the trial as tracts “A” and “B”, is located in an area by the Lake of the Ozarks that defendants, or entities in which defendants had a sizeable interest, had developed. Defendant Henry Hicker-son testified that he participated in the development of these properties, including having surveys made and deciding where lot lines and roads were to be located. He also testified that he was a licensed real estate sales person at the time of trial who had sold over thirty tracts of land during the ten-year period before the trial.

The area where tracts “A” and “B” are located is laid out in “levels” or “tiers.” 2 The lowest level is a few feet above the water line and consists of lots LI to L6. The middle level contains the parcel of real estate involved in this dispute and consists of tracts “A” and “B”. The highest level is made up of lots 1 through 8, and lots 6 and 7 of the First Addition, Lakesite Addition.

Tracts “A” and “B” were surveyed for defendant Henry Hickerson in March of 1978, and were conveyed from Ridgehaven, Inc. (in which defendants had a 25% interest) to Osage Arms Investors, Inc. (in which defendants had a 50% interest) on or about June 29, 1978. Subsequently, on or about October 31, 1978, tract “B” was conveyed to Charles L. Leeseberg and Beverly J. Leeseberg, husband and wife; and on or about November 5, 1979, tract “A” was conveyed to defendants, d/b/a Lake View Retreat, a general partnership.

Plaintiffs initially purchased lots 4 and 5 of the highest level in January or February of 1981.

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Bluebook (online)
716 S.W.2d 439, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-hickerson-moctapp-1986.