St. Louis 'dragging its feet' in Janae Edmondson lawsuit; trial date pushed back 1 year
A trial to determine the merits of a lawsuit filed by former Smyrna High athlete Janae Edmondson vs. the City of St. Louis and other defendants has been pushed back a year after being scheduled for March 11.
Edmondson, now an MTSU volleyball manager, was struck by a vehicle in St. Louis on Feb. 18, 2023, causing both of her legs to be amputated. The family filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis and four other defendants last in June 2023. During a hearing Wednesday, a new jury trial date was set for March 3, 2025.
The lengthy wait for trial is not uncommon, said Edmondson's attorney, Kevin Carnie, with St. Louis-based Simon Law Firm. However, one of the major holdups in the case has been a lack of participation from the City of St. Louis, which is attempting to have its case dismissed, Carnie said.
"The city has been dragging its feet," Carnie told The Daily News Journal. "They filed a motion to dismiss and they filed a motion to stay (stop the proceedings). Instead of asking the judge to rule on the stay, they stopped participating in the case."
Because of the "lack of participation," Carnie asked the court to order the city to provide necessary information or even impose fines against the city for not participating during Wednesday's hearing. Those motions are under submission and expected to be ruled on by a judge soon.
"We served (City of St. Louis) with request for information in August," Carnie said. "To this date they still haven't objected to them or answered them. They won't respond to them. That's what necessitated us filing motions.
"To be frank, most of the work has to be done with the city," Carnie said. "They’re the ones with all the information we want and haven’t been given. Other parties have cooperated and provided answers to questions we asked."
Sheena Hamilton, counselor for the City of St. Louis, did not respond to an interview request from The Daily News Journal.
Road signage is the heart of the case against the city. The intersection in which the accident occurred wasn't properly marked, Carnie said in the lawsuit.
"They had a yield sign where they should have had a stop sign," Carnie said in an earlier interview. "There are city ordinances that explain in a uniform way where a stop sign should be used and a yield sign should be used.
In the city's motion to dismiss, it stated, "Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and the claim asserted against it is barred by sovereign immunity and the Plaintiff has pleaded no facts that establish a waiver of sovereign immunity applies. The full grounds and authorities in support of this motion are included in the Suggestions in Support of this Motion that are filed separately herewith."
MORE: The horrific accident that took Janae Edmondson's legs changed her life − but not her spirit
Another key defendant in the case is Daniel Riley, the driver of one of the automobiles involved in the accident
At the time of the accident, Riley was under house arrest and ordered to wear a GPS tracker device, according to the lawsuit. The suit says he violated terms of the bond by allowing the battery to die "more than 50 times" prior to Feb. 18, but the City of St. Louis never revoked his bond.
The suit says "On Feb. 18, 2023, defendant Daniel Riley was driving, without a license, westbound in (a) 2023 Audi on St. Charles Street approaching the Intersection at a high rate of speed in excess of the 25 mile per hour speed limit."
Other defendants include Kimberly Riley, who the lawsuit says is responsible for her son having access to a rental vehicle he drove on the night of the accident, and Elizabeth Smith, who the lawsuit says was driving "negligently" and "carelessly" while also driving on a suspended license.
According to the lawsuit, Daniel Riley's vehicle struck Smith's vehicle, causing Smith to strike Edmondson and pin her against another automobile.
EAN Holdings, LLC, owners of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (which rented the vehicle Daniel Riley was driving), has been dropped from the suit. Carnie said, "They were able to provide us with enough information that we were satisfied they had nothing to do with anything."
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: St. Louis 'dragging its feet' in Janae Edmondson lawsuit: What to know
