April hearing set in St. Stanislaus suit against Greensfelder

Belleville attorney Michael Nester filed a notice of hearing Monday in a legal malpractice lawsuit filed by his client, a break-away Catholic parish, against its former lawyers.

St. Stanislaus, a St. Louis church built by Polish immigrants in the 1880s, is suing Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale P.C. in connection with a dispute with the St. Louis Archdiocese in Missouri.

St. Stanislaus broke away from the archdiocese in 2005 after a series of battles for control of the church and its property with then-St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke.

In a related development, the church and the archdiocese settled a property dispute in St. Louis Circuit Court on Feb. 14, allowing St. Stanislaus to become independent of the archdiocese

In the 2010 St. Clair County lawsuit, the church contends that a former Greensfelder attorney used information he gained from his experience representing the church against his former clients on behalf of the archdiocese.

The hearing in the malpractice case is scheduled April 16 before Circuit Judge Andrew Gleeson.

Greensfelder has been trying to move the case to St. Louis on forum non conveniens grounds. It argues that no action related to the dispute was in St. Clair County, and the only connection the plaintiffs claim is that Greensfelder has a satellite office in the county.

Thomas Q. Keefe Jr. in Belleville and Winston E. Calvert of Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis represent the plaintiff.

The case is St. Clair case number 10-L-545.