Section 9.10 Lack of Merit

• Library: App Ct Prac 2015 Supp

B. (§9.10) Lack of Merit

In most cases when the appellate courts granted sanctions, the courts primarily rely on the complete lack of merit in the appeal. In these types of cases, when merit is obviously lacking, the courts will not hesitate to impose sanctions. As stated in Andrews v. Andrews, 673 S.W.2d 495, 500 (Mo. App. W.D. 1984), “consideration must be given to the available resources of the court needed to decide meritorious appeals and the burden on those resources which appeals without merit impose.” The overburdened courts do not have much patience with wholly frivolous appeals. The following cases demonstrate this impatience and are instructive to parties and attorneys, who should be on notice that frivolous appeals will result in the assessment of sanctions.

Several instructive cases involve preposterous arguments made to the appellate court out of an apparent misguided principle. These types of cases are an obvious waste of the parties’ and the court’s time. For example, in Babcock v. KTVI-TV, Inc., 873 S.W.2d 293 (Mo. App. E.D. 1994), the Eastern District granted the respondent’s motion for sanctions where the appellant argued that his employer engaged in fraud by withholding federal, state, and local taxes as required by law. In assessing sanctions of $2,785.74, the court cited the appellant’s “mistaken belief that the law which applies to all citizens should somehow not apply to him . . . .” Id. at 297. The court found that the appellant had abused the right to appeal and deprived the parties and the court of time and money. Id.

In Dale v. Hardy, 835 S.W.2d 444, 447–48 (Mo. App. W.D. 1992), the court, sua sponte, assessed sanctions of $500 against an appellant when he attacked a federal court...