MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

Attorneys for the former owners of the Doe Run lead smelter in Herculaneum are working hard to get a $358.5 million verdict thrown out or reduced.

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St. Louis County’s fees for trash and recycling pick up are not taxes and do not violate Missouri’s Hancock Amendment, a state appeals court said, reissuing an opinion it originally handed down in May.

A St. Louis County jury said a group of London insurers must pay Doe Run Resources for the cost of cleaning up lead contamination around six old lead milling sites in St. Francois County, but the amount the plaintiff will get is up in the air. Marc D. Halpern, the plaintiff’s lead lawyer, said the final judgment “is expected to exceed $10 million.”

Tagged with: Doe Run

A St. Louis jury ordered a heating and cooling company to pay $786,000 to homeowners who blame the company for the mold that ruined their house and their belongings. St. Louis lawyer Kevin J. Marquitz bought the newly built home at 2122 Franz Park Lane three years ago and first noticed four small dots of mold on a dining room wall two years ago.

It took three tries, but Laclede Gas Co. finally won a round in its fight with St. Charles County over who has to pay to move Laclede’s gas lines due to the county’s plan to widen Pittman Hill Road. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously said Laclede has a property interest in the gas lines because they are located in an easement created by five recorded subdivision plats, which established the location of the public road and the utility lines.

nside a quiet courtroom in downtown St. Louis, retired police Officer Excell Gilleylen III sat in his wheelchair, facing the judge and the court reporter, as he quietly testified about his medical condition and his need for special equipment to help him get around his house. The 65-year-old Gilleylen was in court Tuesday because the Police Retirement System of St. Louis denied his requests for adaptive equipment, including wheelchair lifts between the basement, first and second floors, a patient lift to help him get in and out of his wheelchair, an accessible van and a particular type of exercise equipment.

Several judges in the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in downtown St. Louis had to relocate hearings after a pipe burst and heavily damaged several floors Tuesday night. Water gushed from the pipe for seven hours before the flooding was discovered at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.

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Lead mining is a dirty business, and the cleanup is expensive. In the last two decades, Doe Run Resources has spent $62.5 million cleaning up lead contamination around six old lead milling sites in St. Francois County, in the area known as the Lead Belt.

Christopher Schmidt has carved out a niche in the Bryan Cave's pro bono efforts: He handles international child abduction cases for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the U.S. State Department.

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LegalZoom, one of the country’s largest online legal document services, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit in Missouri. The class of plaintiffs alleged LegalZoom engages in the unauthorized practice of law by charging a fee for providing “customized legal services” such as wills, trusts, divorce pleadings, business incorporation documents and intellectual property filings, among others. They were seeking statutory damages of three times the amount the plaintiffs paid to have documents prepared.

A Cole County judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging a statewide law requiring the cities of Kansas City and St. Louis to get voter approval every five years to continue to collect earnings taxes. The plaintiffs are Pat Dujakovich, a field battalion chief of the Kansas City Fire Department and president of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, and Troy Schulte, the city manager of Kansas City. No St. Louis officials joined in the suit. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and the state of Missouri are the defendants.