Two St. Louis County employees who work at the county's emergency dispatch center in Ballwin say their personal vehicles were splattered with paint during a contractor's job on the building three years ago, and they still haven't been reimbursed. Now they're suing both St. Louis County and the contractor, Revive Jones LLC, in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The lawsuit, first reported by STLtoday.com, stems from a two-year contract St. Louis County signed with Revive Jones in August 2022, in which the county agreed to pay $600,000 for on-call construction services. As part of that work, a county-hired contractor painted the St. Louis County Police Emergency Operations Center at 1150 Hanna Road in Ballwin, according to the suit. Employee Parker and another worker parked their vehicles in an area that Revive Jones personnel had designated, and the suit says Revive Jones workers told them the spot was safe from paint exposure. Revive Jones workers were painting a fence and did not set up physical barriers to protect nearby cars, the suit claims, and paint ultimately fell onto the employees' vehicles.
A Contractor That's Hard to Reach
The lawsuit claims that Revive Jones' lack of insurance is what has prevented the employees from being reimbursed for the damage, even though the company had provided proof of insurance when it submitted its bid for the county contract. Missouri's purchasing rules, including St. Louis County's own procurement code, require vendors to submit certificates of insurance to the county's Division of Purchasing before work can begin under a contract — raising questions about what happened to that coverage in the time since. Reporting from the same account notes that Revive Jones has three telephone numbers associated with its business, and all of them were either out of service or unable to accept messages. The company's listed business address, at 1818 Washington Boulevard in St. Louis, reportedly maintains only a mailbox rather than an operating office.
The suit includes claims for property damage, negligence and negligent supervision, and it seeks up to $500,000 on each count against both defendants. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Brian H. May, who oversees Division 1 of the St. Louis County Courts. Judge May was appointed to the bench in October 2016 by then-Governor Jay Nixon and previously chaired the Missouri House Judiciary Committee after serving in the state legislature from 1993 to 2001. No hearing date has been set in the case, per the same reporting.
Chief Cox Weighs In After Years of Delay
Before turning to the courts, Parker told St. Louis County Police Chief Juan Cox about the ongoing effort to get reimbursed and appeared before the St. Louis County Police Board to press the issue. Cox, who was officially appointed the department's 11th chief in June after serving as acting chief since May and after a 30-year career with the department, according to the St. Louis County Police Department, apologized for the delay. He called it “beyond ridiculous,” a characterization that underscores how long the employees have waited for a resolution over damage from a job that took place three years ago.
The Board of Police Commissioners that heard Parker's appeal is a five-member civilian oversight body established in 1955 that oversees department policy, appoints the chief, and hears appeals from citizens and employees, with members appointed by the county executive and approved by the County Council. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page's office did not respond substantively to the dispute either, according to the reporting: spokesperson Elizabeth Tisell did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Why Suing the County Is an Uphill Climb
Recovering damages from St. Louis County itself faces a significant legal hurdle. Under Missouri Revised Statutes Section 537.600, sovereign immunity generally shields public entities like the county from tort liability, a protection Missouri governmental bodies have held since 1821 unless a specific statutory exception applies, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. That immunity is typically waived only for negligent operation of motor vehicles by public employees or dangerous conditions on government property. Under a related statute, Section 537.610, public entities can waive that immunity up to the limits of any applicable commercial liability insurance policy they hold, as explained by McCready Law, meaning courts will look closely at whether the county carries a policy that would cover this kind of claim before allowing the suit to proceed.
Pursuing Revive Jones presents its own obstacles if the company genuinely lacks active insurance or operating assets, as the lawsuit alleges. The situation also arrives amid a broader legislative push in Missouri: lawmakers have introduced Senate Bill 559, which would amend Section 537.600 to extend the same sovereign immunity protections public entities enjoy to private contractors working within the scope of a government contract, according to BillTrack50. If enacted, that measure could further limit the damages contractors like Revive Jones face in disputes stemming from public works.
The Ballwin facility at the center of the case is more than just a parking lot dispute backdrop — it's the county's central hub for emergency dispatch, handling more than 500 talk groups across 37 contracting municipalities, and it also houses the St. Louis County Emergency Communications Commission, which manages the interoperable radio network used by emergency agencies countywide. For now, with no hearing date set, the employees whose cars were damaged during a routine painting job continue to wait for a resolution that has already stretched across a change in police leadership and years of unanswered phone calls.
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