Trial De Novo Denied

My question involves small claims court in the state of: Missouri

We were sued in a small claims suit in 2004. We filed a counterclaim. The Judge found in favor of the Plaintiff's claim and also in favor of our counterclaim - so basically a wash. I filed an appeal for a Trial De Novo within the time allowed and were were issued a new court date with a new judge.

However, the day of court, we weren't there probably 1 minute when the Judge came in and said the case was dismissed because I filed the Trial De Novo and not my fiance, even though both of us were listed as parties and neither one of us was dismissed as a party. We were told by the court the ruling stood and we had no other options.

To this day, we still can't figure out why in the world the case was thrown out because only I filed. Is it not true as long as one of the parties timely files and pays the application fee that this is acceptable? In our opinion, this is a gross error on the court and I would like to know if we have any recourse against the court for this ruling?

Why have you waited four years to try to take action?

Well the final ruling was in 2005, so I guess three years, but the reason for the delay is because I'm a little smarter now than I was then and I just took the court's word for it that we could do nothing. Looking back now, I really feel the court was wrong. It's not that I didn't want to do anything, I tried. I just didn't know where to go or who to turn to again, since the court told us different. Sometimes you take for granted that the court is giving you the right information and that is exactly what I did.

Is anybody going to finish answering this question for me? Please??

Thanks!

It's suddenly urgent after 3-1/2 years?

You can look up the statutes and court rules yourself; What I expect you to find is that your window for an appeal is long-closed, and that your window for other forms of post-judgment relief are similarly long-closed.

Probably because both parties were necessary for the case to proceed and/or he just didn't want to hear it.