Ryan v. Reece8/22/2000
Appeal From: Circuit Court of Clay County, Hon. John A. Borron, Jr.
Opinion Vote: REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Lowenstein, P.J., and Newton, J., concur.
Opinion:
Plaintiff Beverly Sue Ryan, as Conservator for the Estate of Brandon Shane Reece, filed a petition for discovery of assets under Section 473.340 RSMo 1994 against John Robert Reece, Isla Faye Reece, and Reece Farms, L.L.C. ("Reece Farms") (herein referred to as "Defendants"). Judge John A. Borron found all three defendants liable as a sanction for their alleged violation of certain discovery rules. After a hearing on damages, he awarded $7,820,000.00 in actual damages and $4,092,085.38 in pre-judgment interest against Mr. Reece, $720,000.00 in actual damages and $333,766.72 in pre-judgment interest against Mrs. Reece, and $75,000 in actual damages against Reece Farms. Mrs. Reece and Reece Farms appeal. Because we find that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiff's claims against them in this petition for discovery of assets proceeding, we reverse and remand with directions to dismiss the claims against Mrs. Reece and Reece Farms.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Further discussion of the underlying facts can be found at State ex rel. Abele v. Harman, 962 S.W.2d 945 (Mo. App. W.D.1998), State ex rel. Knight v. Harman, 961 S.W.2d 951 (Mo. App. W.D. 1998), and Ryan v. Ford, 2000 WL 196638 (Mo. App. W.D. 2000). For purposes of this appeal, we note that the causes of action stem from a serious two-car accident that occurred on November 27, 1980. Involved in that accident were Brandon Shane Reece and his parents, John Robert Reece and Julia Reece, who were riding in the car driven by Mr. Reece, and Gerald Pendleton, who was driving the other car.
The accident caused Brandon severe and permanent injuries and caused the death of his mother, Julia. In the years that followed, a number of lawsuits were filed, dismissed, and later re-filed on behalf of Brandon, seeking to establish liability and recover damages from Mr. Pendleton, Brandon's father, and various medical care providers, based on claims of wrongful death or personal injury . Eventually the claims were settled, with $720,000.00 going to Mr. Reece, $380,000.00 in cash and $6,430.00 per month for life with a minimum guaranteed term of 20 years going to Brandon, and $1,200,000.00 going to the attorneys who represented Brandon and Mr. Reece. The settlement was approved by two different courts.
On April 23, 1997, Plaintiff filed a petition for discovery of assets in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Clay County, Missouri against Defendants Mr. and Mrs. Reece and Reece Farms; against Douglas Abele, who served as conservator ad litem for Brandon's estate in the litigation of Brandon's tort cases; and against the former attorneys for Brandon's estate and Mr. Reece in the tort cases, Hamp Ford, Larry Ferguson, and the partners of the Knight law firm (collectively as the "Knight lawyers"), seeking to recover assets she alleged were misappropriated from and belonged to the estate.
Sometime thereafter, the Knight lawyers and Mr. Abele each filed a writ of prohibition with this Court asserting that the probate court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear Plaintiff's claims. In support, the Knight lawyers claimed that "because the claims alleged against them in the petition for discovery of assets are for legal malpractice and do not involve any property in the possession of the Knight law firm in which [the estate] has any claim or ownership interest," the probate court was without subject matter jurisdiction. Mr. Abele argued that, for similar reasons, the court
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