Wong v. Wong, ED 98714.

• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)
• Citation: 391 S.W.3d 917
• Docket Number: No. ED 98714.,ED 98714.
• Parties: Cheung C. WONG, Appellant, v. James M. WONG, Respondent.
• Decision Date: 19 February 2013

391 S.W.3d 917

Cheung C. WONG, Appellant,
v.
James M. WONG, Respondent.

No. ED 98714.

Missouri Court of Appeals,
Eastern District,
Division Four.

Feb. 19, 2013.

[391 S.W.3d 918]

Edgar E. Lim, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

James M. Wong, Humble, TX, pro se.

PATRICIA L. COHEN, Judge.
Introduction

Cheung C. Wong (Appellant) appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County denying her motion to enforce a qualified domestic relations order. After Appellant filed her brief in this court, we issued an order stating that the brief failed to comply with Rule 84.04 because it did not include the following items: (1) table of cases and authorities; (2) jurisdictional statement; (3) fair and concise statement of relevant facts with citation to specific page references to the record on appeal; (4) points relied on; (5) arguments corresponding to the points relied on; and (6) appendix. This court granted Appellant seventeen days to file a brief complying with Rule 84. Appellant timely filed an amended brief. Respondent James M. Wong filed two motions, which were taken with the case, seeking dismissal of the appeal on the ground that Appellant's amended brief violated Rule 84.04. Because Appellant's brief fails to comply with the rules of appellate procedure so substantially that we cannot review this appeal, we dismiss.

Rule 84.04 sets forth mandatory rules for appellate briefing. City of Perryville v. Brewer, 376 S.W.3d 691, 693 (Mo.App. E.D.2012). “Compliance with briefing requirements is mandatory in order to ensure that appellate courts do not become advocates by inferring facts and arguments that the appellant failed to assert.” Id. at 694. An appellant's failure to substantially comply with Rule 84.04 “preserves nothing for our review and is grounds for dismissing the appeal.” Id. We may exercise our discretion to dismiss an appeal due to briefing errors “where the deficiencies impede disposition of the merits of the appeal.” Id.

[391 S.W.3d 919]

Appellant's statement of facts violates Rule 84.04. Rule 84.04(c) requires the statement of facts to “define the scope of the controversy and afford the appellate court an immediate, accurate, complete and unbiased understanding of the case.” Johnson v. Buffalo Lodging Associates, 300 S.W.3d 580, 581 (Mo.App. E.D.2009) (quotation omitted). Instead, Appellant's statement of facts contains argument. For example, Appellant alleges that “[l]itigation has continued over the years because of Appellee's steadfast refusal to honor [the trial court's] award of this annuity to Appellant,” which is argumentative because the parties appear to dispute which party is entitled to the annuity. See Rogers v. Hester ex rel. Mills, 334 S.W.3d 528, 534 (Mo.App. S.D.2010). In addition, many of the...