Commonwealth Court has upheld the dismissal of a $27 million lawsuit against Schuylkill County's former prothonotary that had alleged he had incorrectly handled the entry of a judgment in a civil case.
In an eight-page opinion and order filed Wednesday in Pottsville, the court ruled M. Robert Ullman and Canoe Manufacturing Co. Inc. had no legitimate complaint against Peter J. Symons Jr. for their own late appeal in the case.
"The prothonotary complied with (the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure)," according to the opinion, which does not indicate which Commonwealth Court judge wrote it.
Additionally, Symons is immune from being sued for his action in this case, the opinion reads in part.
The decision affirmed the ruling by county Judge John E. Domalakes and ends a long battle over the services provided to Ullman and Canoe by Williamson, Friedberg & Jones LLC, Pottsville, the county's largest law firm.
Ullman and Canoe had sought to challenge a Dec. 30, 2005, summary judgment by Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin in favor of the firm, but did not file their appeal until Feb. 7, 2006. The state Superior Court quashed that appeal April 12, 2006, ruling it was not filed within the prescribed 30-day limit.
Ullman and Canoe then filed the lawsuit against Symons, alleging he had improperly not entered judgment at the time of Dolbin's order. They sought from Symons the same amount of money they had been seeking from Williamson, Friedberg & Jones: $27,154,005.
However, Commonwealth Court ruled that under state law, the 30-day time period for Ullman and Canoe to appeal began with the filing of Dolbin's judgment. Furthermore, Symons provided them with notice that that judgment had been entered, according to the opinion.
"A copy of the trial court order was mailed to the parties on Dec. 30, 2005, which effectively fulfilled the prothonotary's mandate to immediately give written notice of the order/judgment," the opinion reads in part.
Furthermore, Symons is protected by state law from being sued except in limited situations where the state has specifically waived immunity, according to the opinion. Failing to give notice and properly enter judgment is not one of those situations, the opinion reads in part.
"Therefore, the prothonotary is immune from suit," according to the opinion.
Finally, the Commonwealth Court refused to consider Ullman's and Canoe's allegation that Symons was part of a conspiracy and engaged in deliberate misconduct. Those allegations did not appear in the original complaint and cannot be raised for the first time in an appeal, the opinion reads in part.
"Issues not raised in the lower court are waived," according to the opinion.
Symons, a Democrat who had been a Republican until 2007, served 16 years as prothonotary until he was defeated in the 2011 election by Republican David J. Dutcavich, the current holder of the office.
