Section 1 Introduction

• Library: Administrative Law 2011

Extraordinary remedies are called “extraordinary” because they involve unusual procedures that are not found in a typical lawsuit and sometimes involve urgent or unusual legal issues that generally cannot be litigated or appealed through normal legal processes. As a result, the Missouri Constitution and statutes permit extraordinary writs in certain limited cases.

Article V, § 18, of the Missouri Constitution provides, in part, that “[a]ll final decisions, findings, rules and orders [of] any administrative officer or body existing under the constitution or by law, which are judicial or quasi-judicial and affect private rights, shall be subject to direct review by the courts as provided by law.” This constitutional provision guarantees the basic right to review by appeal a “final” agency action but leaves for legislative determination the method for obtaining this review and the procedure to be followed. State ex rel. State Tax Comm’n v. Luten, 459 S.W.2d 375, 376 (Mo. banc 1970); Magdala Found. v. Labor & Indus. Relations Comm’n, Div. of Employment Sec., 693 S.W.2d 193, 195 (Mo. App. E.D. 1985). When the legislature provides the method and procedure for review of a final, quasi-judicial decision of an administrative officer or body, failure to...