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This Week in the Missouri Supreme Court: Week of September 25, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Supreme Court issued hand down opinions on Tuesday regarding one case and two attorney discipline cases.

In Thomas Dennis and Sonya Cherry v. Riezman Berger PC and Mercy Hospital Jefferson, Dennis and Cherry had accrued $850 and over $23,000 in unpaid medical bills respectively. When the court decided that he had to pay his debt plus court fees, he could not pay the full amount. The hospital’s law firm garnished the remaining amount and almost $200 in interest. Similarly, Cherry could similarly not pay her debt and defaulted, the law firm garnished her wages, and collected $350 in interest. Dennis and Cherry attempted to sue the law firm and the hospital and alleged that they collected post-judgment interests, which the court did not expressly say they should. The two appealed when the circuit court dismissed their cases

The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously vacated and remanded their appeal because interest is not automatically awarded, except in tort cases. Since the case is not tort related, the court is not required to expressly stipulate that the law firm and hospital are allowed to collect nine percent interest.

In SC 96255, the Missouri Supreme Court suspended the law license of Nevada attorney Dustin Dunfield. Before Dunfield applied to law school, he pleaded guilty to second-degree statutory rape, a felony level crime. He applied a decade later and was admitted. After graduating from law school, he disclosed his plea and sentence in his application to become an attorney in Missouri, which the state accepted. Months later, he attempted to petition the circuit court to remove his name from the state’s registry of sex offenders and was denied.

When he decided to run for county prosecutor in Vernon, a position that prohibits applicants that have committed felony-level crimes. In order to run, he claimed that he had not committed a felony-level crime, which his opponent Lynn Ewing challenged his candidacy in court. Dunfield was declared ineligible and removed from the ballot. Ewing wanted him to be further punished for his indiscretion, which Dunfield claims a local judge and the Missouri Ethics Commission allowed him to do. The Missouri Supreme found him guilty of professional misconduct and will be suspending his license indefinitely in addition to a $1,000 fine.

In SC 96248, the Missouri Supreme Court fined St. Louis attorney Troy Penny $750. The full order can be seen here.