Massachusetts Bonding & Ins. Co. v. Boonville Coal Co.

• Citation: 226 S.W. 961
• Decision Date: 29 November 1920
• Docket Number: No. 13761.,13761.
• Parties: MASSACHUSETTS BONDING & INS. CO. v. BOONVILLE COAL CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

226 S.W. 961

MASSACHUSETTS BONDING & INS. CO. v. BOONVILLE COAL CO.

No. 13761.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

November 29, 1920.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Cooper County; John G. Slate, Judge.

"Not to be officially reported."

Action originating in justice court by the Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Company against the Boonville Coal Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Appeal dismissed.

Charles W. Journey, of Boonville, for appellant.

John Cosgrove and Dan W. Cosgrove, both of Boonville, for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

This is apparently a suit for damages, originating, we take it, in a justice court, from whence it was appealed to the circuit court, and from there has come to this court on appeal by plaintiff.

Appellant's brief has no statement whatever in it. Neither has it any "points and authorities" from whence can be gathered the matters involved or the things wherein the trial court is alleged to have erred. With no statement of the case whatever, the brief begins by saying that plaintiff's declarations of law should have been given and the finding should have been for plaintiff. Then comes a long list of authorities, followed by the "argument."

Section 2080, R. S. 1909, requires the appellant to "make out and furnish the court with a clear and concise statement of the case, and the points intended to be insisted on," etc. See, also, section 3941, R. S. 1909, as to said matters. Rule 16 of this court (169 S. W. xiv) provides that appellant shall file a statement which. "shall consist of a clear and concise statement of the case," etc. And it further provides that this shall be followed by the brief, "which shall contain a statement of the points on which appellant relies for a reversal of the judgment," etc. The purpose of the rule is "to enable the court to be informed of the material facts of the case * * * without being compelled to glean them from the abstract of the record." Strict insistence upon the observance of the rule is, therefore, not the result of a mere slavish technical adherence to form, but is a practical matter of the utmost importance, since it tends directly to expedite the work of the court, and saves much of its time. Rule 18 (169 S. W. xiv) provides dismissal of the appeal as a penalty for the violation of rule 16 (169 S. W. xiv). Neither the statute nor the rule has been complied with, and the appeal should be, and is, dismissed. Mills v. McDaniels, 59 Mo. App. 331; Southwick v....