A Belleville attorney with Stegmeyer & Stegmeyer is suing a former client, alleging damage to his professional reputation that resulted in lost income.
Charles H. Stegmeyer, an attorney for more than 40 years, filed a lawsuit Dec. 10 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against Frederick Peet of St. Clair County.
From 2006 to 2010, the complaint states, Peet hired Stegmeyer to represent him in a real estate transaction. In the course of that transaction, the suit says, the defendant made false and defamatory statements about the plaintiff in a lawsuit on a public forum.
On May 21, 2013, Peet filed that lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court in Missouri against Stegmeyer & Stegmeyer, where the plaintiff works. As a result of the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges he has suffered harm to his personal and occupational reputation, humiliation, extreme emotional distress and mental suffering.
The plaintiff says he has also incurred the costs of the lawsuit in Missouri as well as experienced wasted time defending the lawsuit and his reputation.
Stegmeyer seeks more than $50,000, compensatory and punitive damages, costs of the suit and other relief the court deems appropriate. He is representing himself.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 15-L-697