JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Supreme Court ruled it does not have jurisdiction over an appeal brought by the Saline County assessor against the Saline County Commission, commissioners and collector.
The court retransferred the case to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, concluding Jessica Goodman failed to properly raise a constitutional claim that would invoke the Supreme Court's exclusive appellate jurisdiction, according to the Nov. 5 Missouri Supreme Court opinion.
Goodman filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration on Saline County’s classification under Missouri law, contending it was either a second-class county or, based on assessed valuation trends, should be reclassified as a third-class county.
The county argued that a statutory exemption in section 48.020.1 barred reclassification. Goodman opposed the county’s interpretation and, in passing, suggested the interpretation conflicted with the Missouri Constitution. However, she did not formally allege the statute’s unconstitutionality or request a constitutional ruling.
The circuit court dismissed Goodman’s petition, and she appealed. The Missouri Court of Appeals transferred the case to the Supreme Court, believing Goodman’s arguments raised constitutional issues falling under the Court’s exclusive jurisdiction. The Supreme Court disagreed.
The Missouri Supreme Court emphasized that its exclusive appellate jurisdiction under Article V, section 3 of the Missouri Constitution applies only when a party explicitly alleges a statute is unconstitutional.
This requires raising, preserving, and presenting a real and substantial constitutional claim. Goodman did not satisfy these requirements.
Instead, her references to constitutional provisions were incidental to her arguments against the County’s statutory interpretation.
The court contrasted this case with Boeving v. Kander, where a party explicitly raised contingent constitutional claims.
Goodman did not assert that section 48.020.1 violated the Missouri Constitution, even conditionally. As a result, the case did not involve the validity of a statute, and jurisdiction defaulted to the Missouri Court of Appeals.
"Goodman never properly raised a claim that section 48.020.1 is invalid under the Missouri Constitution," Judge Ginger Gooch wrote in the opinion. "Goodman argued in her suggestions in opposition to the County’s motion to dismiss that the circuit court should adopt her interpretation of section 48.020.1 and avoid the alternative interpretation offered by the County that she asserted would cause section 48.020.1 to 'run afoul of [s]ection 8, [a]rticle VI of the Missouri Constitution[,]' rendering section 48.020.1 unconstitutional."
The Missouri Supreme Court retransferred the case to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, which has general appellate jurisdiction over cases not involving the constitutional validity of statutes.
"The court of appeals correctly noted this Court has said 'there can be no fixed rule as to when or how or at what stage of the proceedings the [constitutional] question should be raised in each case,'" the opinion states. "While this is true, an allegation challenging the constitutional validity of a statute is required....Goodman did nothing more than cite a constitutional provision when refuting the County’s statutory interpretation argument in its motion to dismiss. At no point did she or any other party allege that section 48.020.1 or any other statute is unconstitutional facially or as applied and seek a declaration of constitutional invalidity."
The decision underscores the necessity of clear constitutional claims to invoke the Supreme Court's exclusive jurisdiction, the judges noted.
The Assessor's Office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Missouri Supreme Court case number: SC100554