Daniel S. Bell, et al. Missouri Cases

Plaintiffs Jeschke AG Service, LLC, et al., sued Law Office Defendants and Attorney Defendants for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. The trial court dismissed the Law Office Defendants with prejudice for lack of capacity to be sued and dismissed the Attorney Defendants without prejudice based on claim splitting and the abatement doctrine. The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of the Law Office Defendants, finding that unincorporated divisions of a corporation lack the capacity to be sued. However, it reversed the dismissal of the Attorney Defendants, holding that neither the abatement doctrine nor the rule against claim splitting applied because the parties in the parallel actions were not the same after a voluntary dismissal. The case was remanded for further proceedings against the Attorney Defendants.