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State ex rel. Heartland Title Services, Inc. v. The Honorable Kevin D. Harrell

— S.W.3d —, 2016 WL 6090816 (Mo. banc October 18, 2016)

In a matter of first impression, the Missouri Supreme Court recently clarified that Missouri’s venue statute must be read to allow venue (referring to the locale where the trial in a case can be held) in any Missouri county when requirements for both subject matter and personal jurisdiction are met.

Plaintiffs filed a claim for legal malpractice against an attorney and his law firm in Jackson County, Missouri, arising from the provision of legal services in a case filed in Kansas.  The defendants filed a motion to dismiss for lack of venue, arguing that since the alleged malpractice occurred in Kansas, no Missouri county was a proper venue for the action pursuant to Missouri’s general venue statute, § 508.010.5.

Section 508.010.5 RSMo NonCum. Supp. 2014, limits venue to either the Missouri county where a corporate defendant’s registered agent is located or the county of an individual’s principal residence.  In this case, the defendant attorney did not live in Missouri and the law firm did not have a registered agent in Missouri. The defendants argued that the trial court must dismiss the claim because no Missouri county constitutes a proper venue under § 508.010.5.  The plaintiffs argued that, since no specific Missouri county qualified under that section, then any Missouri county would be a proper venue. Thus, the question presented to the Missouri Supreme Court was whether absent an express provision in § 508.010.5 prescribing a specific venue, venue is proper in any Missouri county or no Missouri county.

In holding that the plaintiff could bring the claim in any Missouri county, the Supreme Court found it important that the Jackson County Circuit Court had both subject matter jurisdiction over the claim (referring to the court’s authority to render judgment in a particular category of cases) and personal jurisdiction over the defendants (referring to the power of a court to require a party to respond to a legal proceeding).  The Court noted that to interpret § 508.010’s silence as barring venue in any Missouri county in which the circuit court’s jurisdiction is not contested would lead to the absurd result of precluding any forum to a party in which a Missouri court has subject matter jurisdiction of the case and personal jurisdiction of the defendant. Thus, if personal and subject matter jurisdiction are established, venue is proper in any county in Missouri in the absence of an express provision by the General Assembly restricting venue.