Callis
Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis is set to hear arguments Friday over whether a case against O'Fallon School District 203 and former music teacher Matthew Lang should stay in Madison County.
The school district had moved to take the suit to St. Clair County.
The plaintiff, Jane Doe, is suing on her own behalf and that of her teenage daughter, Mary Doe, claiming that the O'Fallon school district failed to warn an Alton school district about Lang's previous sexual relationship with an underage woman and that Lang engaged in sexual acts with Mary Doe.
Alton Community Unit School District 11 dropped out of the suit earlier this year.
Lang pled guilty to criminal charges stemming from his relationship with Mary Doe earlier this year. He is serving a sentence pursuant to that plea.
O'Fallon argues that St. Clair County is a more proper venue for the case because the alleged wrongful actions took place there.
The school district also wants the case against it severed from the suit against Lang.
O'Fallon contends that the claims against it are different than those against the former music teacher.
O'Fallon's attorneys Bennett Rodick and Stephanie Jones filed the motion to sever and transfer the case April 20.
The plaintiff opposes the move to transfer the case.
In her May 25 response to the motion to sever and transfer, Jane Doe argues that the claims are not fundamentally different because O'Fallon's actions contributed to those of Lang.
She also dismisses the argument that St. Clair County is where the alleged wrongdoing took place.
Callis is set to hear arguments in the suit at 9 a.m. Friday.
Thomas Falb represents Jane and Mary Doe.
Callis took over the case when she transferred it and over 100 cases
from Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack's docket in December 2009.
Stack will retire later this year.
The case is Madison case number 09-L-886.