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Asmus v. Capital Region Family Practice-McCarty Clinic9/30/2003
e court disbelieved Plaintiff's assertion that his bankruptcy attorney advised him he did not need to list the lawsuit, we cannot determine from the record that the court disbelieved him. See Crumpacker v. Naples, 968 P.2d at 806 ( no evidence in the record to support anything other than "an honest mistake;" therefore, plaintiff should have been allowed to add the bankruptcy trustee as a party). We conclude that, unless the court here determined that this plaintiff acted in bad faith, leave should have been granted.
An abuse of discretion is found where a "ruling is clearly against the logic of the circumstances … and is so arbitrary and unreasonable as to shock the sense of justice and indicate a lack of careful consideration[.]" Anglim v. Mo. Pac. R.R. Co., 832 S.W.2d 298, 303 (Mo. banc 1992). In Foman the Court acknowledged that the grant or denial of a motion to amend is within the discretion of the trial court, but noted that "outright refusal to grant the leave without any justifying reason appearing for the denial is not an exercise of discretion; it is merely abuse of that discretion and inconsistent with the spirit of the [Rule]." Foman, 371 U.S. at 182.
In this case, no reason justifying the denial is readily apparent. We do not know the court's considerations in not granting Plaintiff's motion to amend to add the trustee. We can speculate that the court thought Plaintiff had been intentionally deceptive in his bankruptcy filing, but there is nothing in the record to confirm that. It is more likely that the court mistakenly believed that it had no discretion to consider the principle that leave to amend should be freely granted when justice so requires. When it appears that the trial court, because of a misunderstanding of the law, failed to exercise its discretion, we will generally reverse and remand to allow the court to exercise its discretion. State v. Wynne, 204 S.W.2d 927,931 (Mo. 1947).
In light of the above considerations, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the cause for the court to exercise discretion and either allow the case to go forward or to provide justification as to why the motion to amend to add the bankruptcy trustee should be denied. Plaintiff's second point, related to the motion for reconsideration, is moot in view of our action on point I.
Conclusion
Because it appears that the court here did not exercise its discretion, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand to the trial court with instructions to exercise discretion as to the motion to amend in light of the appropriate considerations.
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