A trial judge is asking the Eastern District Court of Appeals to reconsider their decision that a father is solely liable for damages that his stepdaughter alleges resulted from their incestuous relationship.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, after her sister Mikaela Haynes committed suicide at 14 years old, Melissa Hogg, 24, sued her stepfather Charles Haynes alleging that he sexually abused her when she was a minor.
Haynes filed a Motion for Leave to Join Third Party in June, which acknowledges that he pled guilty and was convicted but he argues that the intimacy was encouraged by his ex-wife Cynthia Kay Randolph who is also Hogg’s mother.
“As a result of Cynthia Kay Randolph’s substantial involvement in the matter and Relator [Hogg]’s contention that she has suffered damages, the Court must determine liability and assign a percentage of fault for such damages,” Haynes’ attorney Ramona Gau wrote in a Sept. 21 Motion for Rehearing.
The appellate court ruled against holding Hogg’s mother accountable for damages after Hogg filed a petition for writ of mandamus against Judge Wendy Wexler of the 24th Judicial Circuit.
“We are desperately trying to set it for trial because Charles Haynes is out of prison and he is hunting for Melissa, her mother and myself,” alleges Hogg’s attorney Evita Tolu.
Gau, who represents both Haynes and Judge Wexler, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Haynes was released last month after serving a seven-year sentence in the Farmington Correctional Facility.
Gau argued on behalf of Haynes that his ex-wife [Randolph]'s role in the alleged incest was not litigated by the criminal court, and the lack of a previous criminal case does not bar her liability as a third party defendant in her daughter's civil case.
"The joinder of Randolph poses no detriment to Relator [Hogg]," Gau wrote. "Relator [Hogg] seeks damages from defendant [Haynes]. Defendant has joined a third party defendant as another liable party for any damages which may be awarded. This addition provides Relator [Hogg] more, not fewer, opportunities to collect on the damages she alleges in her petition."
But the appellate court stated in its Sept. 19 opinion that a defendant cannot compel a plaintiff to continue an action against another party nor may a defendant complain that other joint-tortfeasors have not been joined in the action.
"Even assuming Haynes’s allegations of mother’s conduct are true, Mother’s presence in this lawsuit is not necessary to the determination of Relator’s asserted tort claims against Haynes,” the decision states.
Although Rule 52.04(a) does not require Hogg’s mother to be joined as a necessary party, Gau asks in her motion to transfer the suit to the Missouri Supreme Court in the event the Eastern District Court of Appeals denies a rehearing.
“Respondent [Wexler] abused her discretion in sustaining Haynes’s motion for joinder,” the Sept. 19 appellate opinion states. “Respondent did not have the authority to require joinder. This court makes permanent its preliminary writ of prohibition.”
The panel of appellate judges who decided the case include Kelly Broniec, Lisa Page and John P. Torbitzky.