Section 510.130

Title XXXV CIVIL PROCEDURE AND LIMITATIONS

Chapter 510

Effective - 28 Aug 1943   

  510.130.  Voluntary dismissal — new trial. — 1.  A plaintiff shall be allowed to dismiss his action without prejudice at any time before the same is finally submitted to the jury, or to the court sitting as a jury, or to the court, and not afterward.  A plaintiff who has once so dismissed his action and thereafter files another action upon the same claim shall not be allowed to dismiss the same without prejudice after the jury has been impaneled, or after evidence has been introduced in a nonjury case, except

  (1)  Upon filing a stipulation to that effect signed by the opposite party; or

  (2)  On order of the court made on special motion in which the ground for said dismissal shall be set forth and which shall be supported by affidavit.

  2.  No party, who has been granted a dismissal at his request after an adverse ruling of the trial court preventing a recovery on his part, shall as a matter of right be granted more than one new trial or more than one appeal on the ground that the adverse ruling of the trial court preventing a recovery on his part was erroneous.

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(L. 1943 p. 353 § 99)

(1972) Plaintiff does not have an absolute right to take a voluntary dismissal but to deny such dismissal, defendant must show some injury to himself more than the mere fact that plaintiff could bring another action. Stubblefield v. Seals (Mo.), 485 S.W.2d 126.