Most Missouri litigators are well-versed in citing to ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-Am. Marine Supply Corp.,[1] for Missouri’s summary judgment standard. ITT has governed summary judgment for almost three decades, despite revisions to Missouri Rule of Civil Procedure 74.04(c)(1)-(2) in 1994. Finally, in August, 2020, the Supreme Court of Missouri revised certain portions of ITT’s outdated summary judgment guidance, especially in regard to the body of facts upon which trial courts must rely when deciding motions for summary judgment.
Under ITT’s framework, trial courts analyzing summary judgment had an obligation to look to facts anywhere in the record in order to determine if any genuine disputes of material fact existed, even if neither the movant nor non-movant cited to such facts in their summary judgment filings.
Green v. Fotoohighiam[2] upended this framework by establishing that facts come into a summary judgment record only via numbered paragraphs and responsive filings, per Rule 74.04(c). In fact, the Missouri Supreme Court explained that:
summary judgment principles do not require the circuit court or any appellate court to sift through the entire record to identify disputed issues, which, in turn, would cause a court to impermissibly act as an advocate for a party. Moreover, requiring a court to comb through the entire record to determine if any disputed issues of material fact existed would render the 1994 amendments to Rule 74.04 meaningless.
Green was not the first case to address these issues, and in fact, Missouri trial courts have applied both of the above frameworks over the past decades. But Green was the Missouri Supreme Court’s first time clarifying these rules and the first time that the Court formally (partially) overruled ITT, and its progeny, like Street v. Harris.[3]
In Green, Plaintiff Marcia Green (“Plaintiff”) brought suit against Defendants Mehrdad Fotoohighiam (“Defendant”), James Hall, David Reed, Electenergy Technologies, Inc., and ETI, LLC, for allegedly conspiring to burn down her mobile home while she slept inside. Plaintiff’s amended petition included claims for negligence, assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, trespass, malicious trespass to personalty, and conspiracy.
At the close of discovery, Plaintiff moved for partial summary judgment against Defendant as to the issue of liability (as opposed to damages). Defendant filed no response and the trial court granted Plaintiff’s...
