Severing Venue and Personal Jurisdiction in Missouri

The concepts of venue and jurisdiction carry independent and severable meanings. Venue means the place where a case is to be tried, while jurisdiction speaks to the power of the court to hear and determine a case In Missouri, a unique melding of the concepts developed. A line of cases commingling venue and personal jurisdiction yielded strange and often unduly harsh results.\u27 In State ex rel. DePaul Health Center v. Mummert,6 the Missouri Supreme Court attempted to sever venue and jurisdiction, and finally restore some common sense and predictability to sixty plus years of confusion

Everything You Wanted to Know about Missouri\u27s Public Policy Exception But Didn\u27t Know You Should Ask

In a wrongful discharge action based on the public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine courts created a sleeper claim favoring terminated at will employees.\u27 Generally, Missouri courts categorically constrain the public policy exception in a narrow and clear cut fashion. However, some Missouri courts pushed and rubbed at the bright lines of those categories and created a hazy area of unpredictability in the exception. In addition, federal courts interpreting the Missouri public policy exception introduced a significant pre-emption dispute which Missouri state courts have yet to address