Judge agrees to expand Common Pleas injury lawsuit to include city, state

A personal-injury lawsuit filed against Cape Girardeau County after a fall on the Common Pleas Courthouse stairs has been expanded to include the city of Cape Girardeau and the state of Missouri as defendants.

Pamela Allen and her husband Kelly initially sued Cape Girardeau County government in March over serious injuries she sustained in 2013 when she fell down stairs leading to the basement of the historic Common Pleas Courthouse.

According to the lawsuit, Pamela Allen suffered injuries, including a fracture of her left leg and "life-threatening blood clots in her lungs."

County officials contended the county government has sovereign immunity from "any and all allegations" in this case, and the woman may have been at fault.

But the plaintiffs argue the county possessed liability insurance with the Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund to cover such injuries, thereby waiving sovereign immunity.

The city owns the building, although building repairs have been handled by the county. The circuit-court system is part of state government.

The county, in its legal response, also maintained it doesn't have exclusive possession of the courthouse in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The case, originally filed in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court, was moved May 24 to Stoddard County on a change of venue.

Judge Stephen Mitchell last week granted the plaintiffs' request to add the city and state as defendants in the lawsuit and denied the county's motion for summary judgment to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, D. Matthew Edwards of Cape Girardeau, argued in an amended petition that county, city and state governments knew the stairs leading to the basement were "dangerous and in a defective physical condition."

Officials with the city and the Missouri attorney general's office declined to comment Friday, noting it is a pending case.

Built in 1854, the basement was commonly referred to as the "dungeon" because "the dungeon has not been modernized significantly since its original construction and the fact that the dungeon was formerly used to imprison Confederate soldiers and Southern sympathizers," the lawsuit states.

According to the amended lawsuit, the county and city each owned half interest in the courthouse at 44 N. Lorimier St. In September 1979, the city agreed to allow the county to use all of the Common Pleas Courthouse. In exchange, the county agreed to handle all maintenance and repairs, the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs argue Cape Girardeau County government had a "non-delegable duty to provide a 'good and sufficient' courthouse and fireproof location for the preservation of court records," the amended petition states.

The plaintiffs contend the dungeon was "controlled by county and/or state employees, which was in part due to the generally hazardous and dangerous condition of the dungeon."

According to the amended petition, city officials and/or employees were aware court files were stored in the dungeon. The suit alleges the "city knew or should have known" the stairs were defective.

The suit states "multiple county and state employees spoke publicly to media outlets regarding the dangerous condition of the dungeon.

"Defendants had ample time to remedy this dangerous condition," according to the lawsuit.

All three governments had no guidelines or policies about retrieval of court files from the dungeon, the lawsuit alleges.

Pamela Allen worked as a processor for a local real-estate title company. Part of her duties required her to find and copy court judgments affecting real-estate ownership, such as divorce decrees.

Some of those documents were stored in the courthouse basement, the lawsuit states.

On Aug. 26, 2013, Allen went to the courthouse to retrieve a court file. A courthouse employee advised her to unlock the door to the basement and enter the stairway, according to the petition.

She slipped and fell while going down the stairs, the suit states.

According to the lawsuit, Allen already has incurred more than $130,000 in expenses for medical care and treatment. The lawsuit seeks "fair and reasonable" damages on behalf of Allen and her husband, Kelly.

The lawsuit states Kelly Allen should receive compensation for being deprived of his wife's "society, services, support, association, consortium and companionship," as well as the loss of his wife's income and the expenses associated with caring for her.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

44 N. Lorimier St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.