Court overturns judgment against Metro East priest

An appeals court said Tuesday that the Rev. Leo Hayes, a Metro East-area priest who also did real estate management work, and two associates do not have to pay a $650,000 judgment because the judge who awarded it had already dismissed the lawsuit on which it was based.

The ruling in St. Louis by the Missouri Court of Appeals wipes out the debt owed by Hayes, who is pastor of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Ava and other parishes in the Belleville Diocese.

Full Post Dispatch story here.