27 September 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, will convene court at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, on October 18, 2023.  The oral arguments will be held in the Leah Sprat Hall on campus. Beginning at 9:00 A.M., a three-judge panel consisting of Judge Edward Ardini, Jr., Judge Anthony Rex Gabbert, and Judge Thomas Chapman will hear oral arguments in four cases. After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system and take general questions from the audience.

Judge Ardini will preside over the proceedings at Missouri Western. Judge Ardini was appointed to the Western District in 2016. He previously served as counsel to the Missouri Attorney General and then as counsel to the Governor. Judge Gabbert joined the Western District in 2013. Prior to that, he served as a municipal judge, associate circuit judge, and a circuit judge in Clay County. Judge Chapman was appointed to the Western District in 2018. Before his appointment to the court of appeals, he served as a circuit judge for the 43rd Judicial Circuit of Missouri (Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties) for over seven years.

The court regularly convenes court in Kansas City. For more than 25 years, however, the court has held dockets in several of the 45 counties in the court’s jurisdiction, which includes all of northwest Missouri and most of central Missouri. The court convenes oral arguments outside of Kansas City to give individuals an opportunity to observe a part of the judicial system they normally do not see and to familiarize those attending with the court’s role in the judicial system.

Attachment: Case summaries

Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District

(816) 889-3600