Luzerne County Council summoned to appear in Harrisburg over litigation settlement rejection

The entire 11-member Luzerne County Council has been summoned to appear in federal court in Harrisburg on Tuesday regarding a litigation settlement that failed to secure council majority approval, said county Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino.

At issue is a $47,000 settlement that would have closed out litigation Francis Lombardo filed in federal court in 2023.

While incarcerated at the county prison in July 2021, Lombardo argued he sustained physical injuries caused by alleged excessive use of force by a county-contracted nurse and/or corrections officers, county documents said.

Because the settlement was not approved by council, U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson issued a May 22 order scheduling a July 14 hearing on the matter.

Carlson mandated that “all persons who played a role in authorizing settlement authority for negotiation purposes and in voting on approving the final settlement should be prepared to appear and testify.”

The hearing is at 11 a.m. in the Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse in Harrisburg.

Council discussed the settlement in a closed-door executive session and later voted on it at its April 28 meeting.

Three council members said they had to abstain from the vote. Councilman John Lombardo said he has a relationship with the plaintiff. Councilwoman Joanna Bryn Smith, an attorney, said she represented the plaintiff in the past. Councilman Steve Coslett, a retired county corrections officer, said he was involved in the alleged incident.

The eight remaining members were deadlocked. Council members LeeAnn McDermott, Denise Williams, Chris Belles, and Harry Haas voted no, leaving only four votes in support of the settlement from Sabatino, Vice Chairwoman Brittany Stephenson, Dawn Simmons, and Patty Krushnowski.

According to Carlson’s order:

Chief Magistrate Judge Daryl F. Bloom conducted a settlement conference with all parties in the prisoner civil rights action on April 20.

The following day, the court reported the parties had reached an agreement and ordered that the case be administratively closed.

On May 22, at the request of the defendants’ legal counsel, the court conducted a status conference with the parties to discuss “issues that have arisen concerning consummating the settlement that was reached on April 20.”

Carlson scheduled Tuesday’s hearing to consider the “stalled efforts to effectuate the agreement of the parties.” He also directed the plaintiff to file a motion to enforce the settlement agreement by June 12 and the defendants to respond to that motion by June 26.

Enforcement filings

Lombardo is arguing that correctional officers named as defendants must still be on the hook to pay the settlement because they were sued as individuals.

However, the defendants argue it was made clear that council approval was always required because they were also sued for actions performed during the course of their employment and have been indemnified by the county.

Lombardo’s filing said the settlement conference supervised by Bloom resulted in a binding agreement in which defendant corrections officers Ryan Flynn and David Antosh would pay $47,000, and defendant certified registered nurse practitioner Anthony Ianuzzi would pay $750.

“Defendants now claim they cannot consummate the settlement because the Luzerne County Council, a body that is not a party to this litigation, deadlocked 4-4 on a vote to approve funding of the settlement,” said the filing submitted by Lombardo’s attorney, Daniel J. Nawrocki, of Nawrocki Law in Wilkes-Barre.

It argued this “post-hoc attempt to manufacture a retroactive lack of authority is legally untenable and made in bad faith” and said the court should enforce the settlement and impose appropriate sanctions if the defendants “continue to refuse to consummate the settlement they agreed to.”

The brief also maintains that Flynn, Antosh, and Ianuzzi were sued in their individual capacities and that they should “remain bound to that settlement agreement.”

It asserts the county has “no legal standing” in the litigation because the county was dismissed as a defendant in April 2024. Council’s votes, resolutions, and deliberations are “legally irrelevant to this litigation” and “cannot vitiate an agreement reached by the actual parties to the action,” it said.

The filing also said defense counsel indicated the agreed-upon figure at the settlement conference “was within the range of authority pre-authorized by the County Council before the conference took place,” it said.

“If the county had already pre-authorized the settlement amount, then the County Council’s subsequent 4-4 vote to ratify the agreement was a procedural failure within the county’s own internal processes, a failure that the defendants and their counsel cannot now use as a weapon against plaintiff,” it said.

In a brief opposing Lombardo’s enforcement efforts, Flynn and Antosh said it was made clear during the settlement conference and in a follow-up written communication that public County Council approval was required for the settlement to proceed. This April 22 correspondence specified council meeting dates and promised to inform Lombardo of the outcome of the council vote.

The correctional officers are represented by Attorneys Patrick J. Boland III and James D. Greco, of Marshall Dennehey P.C. in Scranton, which was retained by the county to represent them.

The filed response also argues the claims were brought against the correctional officers in their capacity as county employees, which means they were not sued solely as individuals in the matter.

“Thus, given that Luzerne County, as the employer of answering defendants, was funding the settlement, a fact of which plaintiff’s counsel was aware, compliance with the Sunshine Act was required and approval by Council was an element of mutual assent requirement for entering into the settlement agreement,” it said.

Lombardo’s complaint had alleged he was subjected to excessive force while he was fully restrained in handcuffs and a waistbelt. The defendants have not admitted to any wrongdoing.

Sabatino said the county Transportation Authority is providing a shuttle to transport council members, although some may be traveling to Harrisburg on their own.

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