25 September 2024

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, will convene court October 16, 2024, at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the Leah Sprat Hall on campus. A three-judge panel consisting of Judge Mark Pfeiffer, Judge Gary Witt and Judge Thomas Chapman will hear oral arguments in three cases. After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system and take general questions from the audience.

Pfeiffer will preside over the proceedings at Missouri Western. He was appointed to the Western District in 2009. Before his appointment to the judiciary, he practiced law in Springfield and Columbia. Witt joined the Western District in 2010. Immediately prior to his appointment, he served as an associate circuit judge in Platte County (in the 6th Judicial Circuit). Previously, he practiced law in Platte County and served in the Missouri House of Representatives. 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 (Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties) for more than seven years. Prior to becoming a judge, he practiced law in the Chillicothe area.

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 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: Summaries of cases scheduled to be argued October 16, 2024, in St. Joseph

Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District

(816) 889-3600