Missouri appeals court rejects bid by Rams, NFL to move lawsuit out of St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Court of Appeals at St. Louis on Tuesday rejected a bid by the Los Angeles Rams, its owner and the National Football League to move January’s relocation lawsuit out of St. Louis.

An order signed by Robert M. Clayton III of Hannibal, the eastern district appeals court’s presiding judge, denied an appeal filed last month by the Rams, owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL seeking to overturn a circuit judge’s Aug. 31 ruling that keeps the trial in St. Louis. The order provided no legal explanation for denying the request.

Keeping the trial in St. Louis, the Rams, NFL and Kroenke argued, would give the plaintiffs — St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority — “undue influence” over prospective jurors. They also sought to move the trial because of what they called “extensive and continuing prejudicial pretrial publicity” in St. Louis.