478.240. Presiding judge, term, selection procedures--chief justice of supreme court may remove presiding judge, designate acting judge--authority to assign cases, exception--judge hears case not prop - Missouri Statutes

Presiding judge, term, selection procedures--chief justice of supremecourt may remove presiding judge, designate actingjudge--authority to assign cases, exception--judge hears case notproperly assigned, effect.

478.240. 1. The presiding judge of each circuit which isprovided by subsection 3 of section 15 of article V of theconstitution shall be selected for a two-year term. The circuitand associate circuit judges in each circuit shall select bysecret ballot a circuit judge from their number to serve aspresiding judge. Selection and removal procedures, notinconsistent with the rules of the supreme court, may be providedby local court rule. If a presiding judge is disqualified fromacting as a judicial officer pursuant to the constitution,article V, section 24, the circuit judges and associate circuitjudges of the circuit shall select a circuit judge as presidingjudge. If the circuit does not have an eligible judge to beelected presiding judge, then the chief justice of the supremecourt may designate an acting presiding judge until a successoris chosen or until the disability of the presiding judgeterminates.

2. Subject to the authority of the supreme court and thechief justice under article V of the constitution, the presidingjudge of the circuit shall have general administrative authorityover all judicial personnel and court officials in the circuit,including the authority to assign any judicial or court personnelanywhere in the circuit, and shall have the authority to assignjudges to hear such cases or classes of cases as the presidingjudge may designate, and to assign judges to divisions. Suchassignment authority shall include the authority to authorizeparticular associate circuit judges to hear and determine casesor classes of cases. By this subsection the presiding judgeshall not, however, be authorized to make the followingassignments:

(1) Assignment of a municipal judge to hear any case otherthan to initially hear a municipal ordinance violation case ofthe municipality which makes provision for such municipal judge,except that the presiding judge of a circuit may assign amunicipal judge of a municipality within the circuit to hear anddetermine municipal ordinance violations in a court of anothermunicipality within the circuit if the municipality to which thejudge is especially assigned by the presiding judge has madeprovision for the compensation of such judge;

(2) Assignment of a judge to hear the trial of a felonycase when he has previously conducted the preliminary hearing inthat case;

(3) Assignment of a case to a judge contrary to provisionsof supreme court rules or local circuit court rules; and

(4) Assignment of a case or class of cases not within theclass of cases specified in section 472.020, RSMo, to a circuitjudge who is also judge of the probate division and who was onJanuary 1, 1979, a probate judge shall only be with the consentof such judge of the probate division.

3. If any circuit judge or associate circuit judge shallproceed to hear and determine any case or class of cases whichhas not been assigned to him by the presiding judge pursuant tosubsection 1 or 2 of this section, or to which he had not beentransferred by the chief justice of the supreme court, or in theevent the purported assignment to him shall be determined to bedefective or deficient in any manner, any order or judgment hemay have entered may be set aside, as otherwise provided by ruleor by law, and the judge may be subject to discipline underarticle V, section 24 of the Missouri Constitution, but he shallnot be deemed to have acted other than as a judicial officerbecause of any such absence, defect or deficiency of assignmentunder this section, or transfer by the chief justice.

(L. 1978 H.B. 1634, A.L. 1987 H.B. 222, A.L. 1989 S.B. 127, et al., A.L. 1993 S.B. 88)

*No continuity with § 478.240 as repealed by L. 1978 H.B. 1634.

(1987) There is no requirement that an order of assignment made by a presiding judge of a circuit court pursuant to this section be filed in order for the assignment to be effective and default judgment entered before order of assignment was filed is not a reason to set aside such judgement. Jones v. Chrysler Corp., 731 S.W.2d 422 (Mo.App.S.D.).