Opinion
No. ED 107819
12-17-2019
Tatjana MARKOVIC, Appellant, v. BHI-SEI ST. LOUIS, LLC, et al., Respondent.
FOR APPELLANT, Tatjana Markovic PRO SE, 12370 Amber Creek Court, St. Louis, MO 63141. For Respondent, Ted L. Perryman, Korissa M. Zicrick, Andrew P. Laquet, 1034 S. Brentwood Blvd., Suite 2100, St. Louis, MO 63117.
FOR APPELLANT, Tatjana Markovic PRO SE, 12370 Amber Creek Court, St. Louis, MO 63141.
For Respondent, Ted L. Perryman, Korissa M. Zicrick, Andrew P. Laquet, 1034 S. Brentwood Blvd., Suite 2100, St. Louis, MO 63117.
Before Robert M. Clayton III, P.J., Robert G. Dowd, Jr., J., and Roy L. Richter, J.
ORDER
PER CURIAM
Tatjana Markovic ("Appellant") appeals from the Circuit Court of St. Louis County's grant of summary judgment in favor of BHI-SEI STL and United Carpet, Inc. (collectively, "Respondents"). The Circuit Court entered summary judgment on March 29, 2019, and on that same day Appellant filed a motion to vacate the entry of summary judgment. On April 23, 2019, the trial court denied Appellant's motion to vacate its previous summary judgment order, and Appellant filed her notice of appeal on April 28, 2019.
Respondents’ Motion for Attorney's Fees is Hereby Granted
Before we address the merits of Appellant's points on appeal, we will first address Respondents’ motion for attorney's fees. On October 21, 2019, Respondents filed a Motion for Attorney's Fees with this Court, requesting this Court enter an order awarding Respondents $4,102.70 pursuant to Rule 84.19.
Rule 84.19 states, "If an appellate court shall determine that an appeal is frivolous, it may award damages to the respondent as the court shall deem just and proper." Rule 84.19. An appeal is frivolous if "it presents no justiciable question and is so readily recognizable as devoid of merit on the face of the record that there is little prospect it can ever succeed." Snelling v. Kenny, 491 S.W.3d 606, 616 (Mo. App. E.D. 2016) (quoting Johnson v. Aldi, Inc., 971 S.W.2d 911, 912 (Mo. App. E.D. 1998) ). The purpose of this rule is to prevent congestion of appellate dockets with cases devoid of merit, and to compensate respondents for their costs incurred in responding to a meritless appeal. Snelling v. Chrysler Motors Corp., 859 S.w.2d. 755, 757 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993). Further, the failure of an appellant to present a justiciable question and to exhibit a professional effort to comply with the Rules of Civil Procedure indicate bad faith in bringing the appeal. In re Marriage of Weinshenker, 177 S.W.3d 859, 865 (Mo. App. E.D. 2005).
Here, there was little prospect Appellant's appeal would ever succeed, but she filed this appeal anyway. The law clearly indicates her appeal was unlikely to succeed. Appellant's second point on appeal was based on a default judgment that never occurred, and in her third point, she ludicrously faults the trial court for asking her open-ended questions during the hearing on her motion to set aside the judgment. Appellant has repeatedly failed to appear for hearings despite notice, and has repeatedly flaunted the Rules of Civil Procedure. She failed to file a complete legal file with this Court, forcing Respondents to supplement the legal file. Her original brief was dismissed, and her amended brief contains a statement of "facts" without citations to the specific pages of the record on appeal as required. These actions indicate bad faith on the part of Appellant in bringing this appeal. Further, all of Appellant's actions have forced Respondents to incur the needless costs of defending this action, and have forced the Court to focus its time on an appeal that had little to no chance of success. See id.
Therefore, we hereby grant Respondents’ motion for attorney's fees pursuant to Rule 84.19.
We have reviewed the briefs of the parties and the record on appeal and find no error of law. No jurisprudential purpose would be served by a written opinion. However, the parties have been furnished with a memorandum for their information only, setting forth the facts and reasons for this order.
The judgment is affirmed pursuant to Rule 84.16(b).