Section 516.100

Title XXXV CIVIL PROCEDURE AND LIMITATIONS

Chapter 516

Effective - 28 Aug 1939   

  516.100.  Period of limitation prescribed. — Civil actions, other than those for the recovery of real property, can only be commenced within the periods prescribed in the following sections, after the causes of action shall have accrued; provided, that for the purposes of sections 516.100 to 516.370, the cause of action shall not be deemed to accrue when the wrong is done or the technical breach of contract or duty occurs, but when the damage resulting therefrom is sustained and is capable of ascertainment, and, if more than one item of damage, then the last item, so that all resulting damage may be recovered, and full and complete relief obtained.

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(RSMo 1939 § 1012)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 860; 1919 § 1315; 1909 § 1887

(1972) In suit against abstract company the cause of action shall be deemed to accrue and limitations shall commence to run only from the time when the damage resulting therefrom is sustained and is capable of ascertainment. Thorne v. Johnson (A.), 483 S.W.2d 658.

(1976) Held, statute of limitations begins to run when public service commission determined that rate charged was improper, not when improper charges were made. DePaul Hospital v. Southwestern Bell Telephone (A.), 539 S.W.2d 542.

(1984) Plaintiff's ignorance of his cause of action for legal malpractice prevented the statute of limitations from running where that ignorance was totally caused by the actions of his attorney in failing to dismiss a suit and allowing a default judgment to be entered against his client on a counterclaim without notifying the client. Anderson v. Griffin, Dysart, Taylor, Penner (Mo.App.), 684 S.W.2d 858.