Klotz v. St. Anthony's Medical Center

Introduction

Does a legislated limit on damages in actions for personal wrongs — which were triable to juries when Missouri’s constitution was adopted — violate the constitutional guarantee that the right to trial by jury “shall remain inviolate?”

I agree with the unanimous conclusion in the per curiam opinion that this case is governed by State ex rel. St. Louis-San *772Francisco Ry. Co. v. Buder, 515 S.W.2d 409 (Mo.1974), because, as to James and Mary Klotz, the 2005 statutory limit on non economic damages — enacted after James Klotz suffered his injury — is a law “retrospective in operation” in…