Appeals court to conduct business in Cape Girardeau

A case that saw a Cape Girardeau woman awarded $25,000 after she said she contracted a venereal disease from a co-worker at a local restaurant is one of five appeals the Missouri Court of Appeals will hear in Cape Girardeau this week.

The court will hear its Southern Division docket Friday at the Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. Courthouse.

The court, which usually holds its hearings in St. Louis, will do its work in Cape Girardeau as an opportunity for community members to explore the role of judges and the judicial system, according to a Missouri Court of Appeals news release. The court will hold 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. dockets.

The 9:30 a.m. docket has three cases, while the 11 a.m. docket has two. Attorneys will be given 15 minutes to argue their cases, and the cases will last roughly 30 minutes. Cases range from custody battles to sexual harassment lawsuits from Cape Girardeau, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties.

Chief Judge Kurt S. Odenwald and Judges Sherri Sullivan, Glenn A. Norton and Gary M. Gartner Jr. will sit in panels of three to hear oral arguments for the appealed cases.

A local restaurant franchise is involved in a case on the 11 a.m. docket. In 2007, a former employee, then 15, filed a lawsuit that alleged she was forced to have sex with her 31-year-old supervisor four times and contracted two venereal diseases. In the suit, she named the offender, Kevin M. Emanuel, the company that owns the local franchise and the company's owner.

The defendant asked for $500,000 in retribution, according to court documents.

The company and owner were thrown out of the lawsuit, and Emanuel was ordered to pay $25,000 when Cape Girardeau Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Lewis ruled on the decision in October 2010. Emanuel has not yet paid.

The case is being appealed by the plaintiff in an effort to hold Emanuel's employer accountable, the plaintiff's attorney, JP Clubb said.

After the dockets are heard, the participating judges will participate in a question-and-answer session with the audience in the courtroom.

"We regularly schedule argument dockets in the northern and southern portions of the district to make our court and judges more accessible to all Missouri citizens," Odenwald said in the release.

The court regularly hears cases in St. Louis, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau and other locations in the Eastern District. The last docket to be read in Cape Girardeau was in October 2010. The past five dockets here were at Southeast Missouri State University.

psullivan@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

599 Independence St. Cape Girardeau, Mo.