# Wolfgeher v. Wagner Cartage Service, Inc.

> Supreme Court of Missouri · February 23, 1983 · 646 S.W.2d 781

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9646402

## Case

- **Full name:** Frank WOLFGEHER, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. WAGNER CARTAGE SERVICE, INC., and Truck Insurance Exchange, Defendants-Appellants
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Missouri
- **Decided:** February 23, 1983
- **Citations:** 646 S.W.2d 781; 1983 Mo. LEXIS 328
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Welliver
- **Judges:** Higgins, Gunn, Donnelly, Seiler, Welliver, Blackmar
- **Cited by:** 110 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9646402

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that a unexpected work-related injury not produced by unusual or abnormal strain is an “accident”

## Opinion text

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The time is totally inappropriate for this Court to construe accidental injury, see § 287.020(2), RSMo 1978, to mean any “job related” injury. Such an expansion of coverage by judicial fiat can only raise already oppressive insurance premiums and, as a result, increase the cost of doing business in this state.
The continuing expenditures of time and resources made by the legislative and executive branches to attract jobs and business to the state reflect the degree of Missouri’s involvement in the “war among the states for jobs and business.” See Schellhardt, War Among the States For Jobs and Business Becomes Ever Fiercer, Wall St.J., Feb. 14, 1983, at 1, col. 6. Today’s decision only frustrates the attempt to stimulate growth and improve the economic condition of the state.
Courts can no longer ignore economic reality. The present economic conditions mandate judicial economic responsibility. See Bass v. Nooney Co., 646 S.W.2d 765, 774 (Mo. bane 1983) (Welliver, J., dissenting), decided today.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9646402. Public record. Not legal advice.