Let si be a uniformly elliptic linear differential expression of second order, defined on the bounded domain Q<=Rm, and let s<=RxR be a maximal monotone graph. Under some growth assumption on s it is shown that for any given feL(Q.) the problem: stfu+s(u)3 f on fi, u=0 on 3U, admits a strong solution. It is not required that s/ is monotone.