Section 4.21 Settlement, Allocation of Fault, and Appeal

• Library: Settling Cases 2014

Because settlement can sometimes occur after the rendition of a final judgment while the matter is on appeal, the cases discussed in the following paragraphs are instructive.

Teeter v. Missouri Highway & Transportation Commission, 891 S.W.2d 817 (Mo. banc 1995), reaffirms that the wrongful death cause of action is indivisible and that the interests of the individual class beneficiaries become divisible or separable only after there has been a judgment. Id. at 819–20. Under that logic, the entire damage...