Section 36 Pleading Vexatious Penalties

• Library: Damages 2012

In Block v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. of Baltimore, Md., 290 S.W. 429, 440 (Mo. banc 1926), the Supreme Court of Missouri approved the following allegation of the vexatious penalty petition: “[D]efendant vexatiously refused, and still vexatiously refuses, to pay plaintiff for said loss, in whole or in part.” The Court distinguished Dolph v. Maryland Casualty Co., 261 S.W. 330 (Mo. 1924), which held that a similar allegation was not an allegation of fact but was a conclusion. The Block Court stated:

...