Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri

Re: Determining the right venue

Venue in Missouri is determined by where the parties live "or can be found." In this context it means that unless the defendant can be found in County A or in County C, then they must be sued in County B where they live and can be found.

How can a defendant be "found" in another county. If they work there, vacation there, or routinely stay the night there. For example, if you know that someone spends every other weekend at the Lodge of the Four Seasons in the Lake of the Ozarks, you could arrange for the sheriff (or special process server) to serve them at that location. Note that the default option is to get the sheriff to serve, but that if you ask, you can have a special process server appointed to handle that task. Usually that means a private detective.

If someone works in St. Louis City, but lives in St. Louis County, you have them served at their place of employment (which has the added benefit of making the dispute public with their employer which won't make them a happy camper).

Some lawsuits that are "in rem" procedings must be filed in the county where the land is located. I can't tell from your description if this is a procedure you would need, but it might be.

Venue is not jurisdictional. The proper answer is not dismissal without prejudice (as was done in your case) but transfer to the correct venue. I would also suggest that if you point this out the next time the issue comes up, the defense attorney may be interested in compromising and agreeing where venue is correct so as to permit transfer to that venue. But even if he does not agree, since it is not jurisdictional, the court would err by dismissal, and that would be appealable. The correct answer is simply to transfer.

Hope this helps.