LETTERS: EDITORIAL OFFENDS APPELLATE JUDGE

To the editor:

I should not write this letter, for it violates two rules. First, the more you stir fertilizer, the more it smells. Second, you never win an argument with a newspaper, because the newspaper can always have the last word.

Nevertheless, I am so offended by last Sunday's editorial about Peter Kinder's lawsuit that I cannot let it go unchallenged. In that editorial, you stated, "That the opinion was written by a Carnahan appointee known to be aligned with the trial lawyers of the plaintiffs' bar will come as no surprise to close observers of today's corrupted, and increasingly corrupting, legal arena." (Emphasis added.)

As we all know, the basic meaning of "corrupt" is "evil." I have been a member of the legal arena for more than 40 years and do not consider either the legal arena nor me "evil." Such a comment hurts me more than you can know.

Nor do I consider all of the other fine lawyers and judges I know as part of an evil system. Do you really think that Cape Girardeau's Stephen Limbaugh, who sits on the Missouri Supreme Court, and Marble Hill's Kenneth Shrum, a member of the Missouri Court of Appeals, are participants in an evil legal arena? Our son, John? Bill Syler? Peter Statler? Gary Kamp? John Bradshaw? Joe Russell? I could go on and on, but you get the point.

Two other comments. First, your editorial suggests that one "Carnahan appointee" decided this case. You know better, for all appellate decisions involve more than one judge. No doubt it did not suit your purposes to mention this. If you had, you would have had to acknowledge that the other judge who heard the arguments and concurred (agreed) with the decision was an appointee of former Gov. John Ashcroft.

Second, litigants who lose cases seldom acknowledge that their position was wrong. Rather, they choose to blame their loss on either their lawyer or the judge.

STANLEY A. GRIMM

Senior Judge

Missouri Court of Appeals

Cape Girardeau, Mo.