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ST. LOUIS — Circuit court officials are suing the city’s finance chief, saying she is illegally refusing to pay their expenses, including such important courthouse repairs as a window pierced by gunfire.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday complains that Comptroller Darlene Green has balked at invoices for printer ink, furniture, and new letterhead and business cards for the circuit court’s presiding judge. Also pending is payment for the $900 repair of a window in the Civil Courts Building shot through in January — one of three damaged in recent months.

The lawsuit says Green’s office has justified refusals by saying that the court is not submitting its invoices through the proper process.

But court officials say that’s not her call. They say state law gives her no authority to review court expenses once they are budgeted. And in a separate filing, they say allowing such behavior to continue threatens the separation of powers between executive and judicial branches of government required by the Missouri Constitution.

Meetings between court and comptroller staff have failed to resolve the issue, which appears to be related to the introduction of new accounting software in the city. A statement from the comptroller’s office also referenced a 2020 state audit urging the comptroller to more thoroughly review expenses submitted by county offices.

Joel Currier, a spokesman for the circuit court, declined comment on the matter.

The comptroller’s office had not yet filed an answer to the petition as of Thursday morning. But Green told the Post-Dispatch on Thursday that the matter boiled down to a “staff issue.�

“Both staffs have just loggerheaded,� she said.

She said she wasn’t against the lawsuit, and that it might be the best way to resolve the matter.

“Let’s move along, staff,� Green said, “and perhaps talk about your philosophical differences over lunch.�

The broken court window is the building’s third in recent months.

In December, bullets pierced windows on the sixth and eighth floors of the building, at Tucker Boulevard and Market Street.

In January, the building got hit again, this time on the 10th floor.

The court fixed the windows on the 8th and 10th floors — but the scuffle with Green's office has left at least one invoice unpaid.

One of the two windows hit in December has not yet been fixed.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the timing of the gunfire that broke Civil Courts building windows and which windows have been repaired.