Gov. Matt Blunt is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to consolidate the four defamation cases he faces. Former deputy counsel Scott Eckersley filed a wrongful termination and defamation case against the governor and four of his staff members in January, and a judge subsequently split the defamation case into four cases in four different counties.

In a document filed with the Supreme Court on Monday, Blunt and his fellow defendants in the defamation case — Ed Martin, Rich Chrismer, Rich AuBuchon and Henry Herschel — ask the court to stop judges in St. Louis, Jackson County and Ozark County from hearing the defamation claims against him.

Blunt argues that the case should be heard in Cole County because that’s where Eckersley was fired. Blunt was successful in convincing Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Manners to move the wrongful termination case to Cole County. But because reporters from various news outlets all received or read the allegedly defaming material in different locations, he split the defamation case into four separate actions and moved the cases to Cole County, Ozark County, Jackson County and St. Louis Circuit Court.

Normally, the first course of appeal in such a case would be to an appeals court, but Blunt’s attorneys argue that the Supreme Court should issue a ruling because the case has been sent to counties in three different appeals court districts.

“The result of the trial court’s misapplication of the law is that pieces of this action now lie in multiple inconvenient and improper venues, creating a substantial likelihood of inconsistent results and a certain waste of judicial resources,” Blunt’s attorneys argue in their court filing.

Eckersley alleges that he was improperly fired and that the Blunt administration sent defamatory statements to reporters in an attempt to defend the firing.