Turner-Bey v. Hagenhoff, WD 75988.

• Decision Date: 12 November 2013
• Docket Number: No. WD 75988.,WD 75988.
• Citation: 413 S.W.3d 676
• Parties: Oscar TURNER–BEY, Appellant, v. Sandra HAGENHOFF, et al., Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

413 S.W.3d 676

Oscar TURNER–BEY, Appellant,
v.
Sandra HAGENHOFF, et al., Respondents.

No. WD 75988.

Missouri Court of Appeals,
Western District.

Nov. 12, 2013.

[413 S.W.3d 677]

Oscar Turner–Bey, Jefferson City, MO, Appellant Acting Pro Se.

John Reeves, Jr., Jefferson City, MO, for Respondent.

Before Division Four: JAMES EDWARD WELSH, C.J., ALOK AHUJA, and CYNTHIA L. MARTIN, JJ.

JAMES EDWARD WELSH, Chief Judge.

Oscar Turner–Bey appeals from a judgment entered by the small claims division of the circuit court. The court dismissed Turner–Bey's petition because the statute of limitation had expired on all of his claims. Rather than petition the circuit court for a trial de novo, Turner–Bey filed an appeal directly with this court. Because section 482.365, RSMo 2000, does not provide for appeals from small claims judgments directly to this court, we dismiss Turner–Bey's appeal.

Turner–Bey, an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center, filed a petition in the small claims division of the Circuit Court of Cole County on May 31, 2012, alleging that Sandra Hagenhoff, a correctional officer, and several other Department of Corrections employees damaged or refused to return to him four items of his property: a Crockpot, a television, a cassette radio, and a word processor. According to Turner–Bey, the Crockpot was damaged on April 17, 2007. He further alleged that he became aware that his cassette radio had been taken from him and that his television had been damaged prior to December 13, 2010. In addition, Turner–Bey alleged that he became aware that his word processor had been damaged on December 4, 2010.

Hagenhoff filed a motion to dismiss Turner–Bey's petition on the ground that the statute of limitation had run on all of Turner–Bey's claims. The court granted the motion to dismiss on that ground. Turner–Bey then filed a notice of appeal with this court.¹

“In Missouri, the right to appeal is purely statutory, and ‘where a statute does not give a right to appeal, no right exists.’ ” Fannie Mae v. Truong, 361 S.W.3d 400, 403 (Mo. banc 2012) (quoting Farinella v. Croft, 922 S.W.2d 755, 756 (Mo. banc 1996)). Section 512.020, RSMo Cum.Supp.2012, provides that a party may appeal a final judgment “of any trial court in any civil cause from which an appeal is ... no[t] clearly limited in special statutory

[413 S.W.3d 678]

proceedings[.]” Small claims cases are special statutory proceedings governed by sections 482.300 through 482.365, RSMo. These statutes do not...