The attorney for Mootz Candies of Pottsville said Tuesday that the $2 million lawsuit against the contractors who built the City of Pottsville's Union Station may be settled May 2.
A mediation hearing is slated for 1 p.m. that day before retired Lehigh County Judge Thomas A. Wallitsch at 1611 Pond Road, Allentown, according to Michael J. Fiorillo, Pottsville, the attorney for the family that owned the chocolate factory.
"It's scheduled to be a one-day mediation," Fiorillo said Tuesday.
In August 2012, Fiorillo said the parties decided to settle the case through mediation and selected Wallitsch.
The former chocolatier closed its 220-222 S. Centre St. factory and store in July 2010 due to alleged damages caused by the construction of Union Station. On Jan. 11, 2012, the owner, Joseph Edgar "Ned" Buckley, filed a $2.75 million lawsuit in county court against three of the station's contractors.
The three defendants in this case are the prime contractor, William H. Lane, Binghamton, N.Y., and two subcontractors, H.T. Sweeney & Co. Inc., an excavator from Brookhaven, Delaware County, and Berkel & Co. Contractors Inc., a driller from Pasadena, Md.
On Feb. 19, 2012, Buckley, 54, of Deer Lake, died unexpectedly at his home. His survivors include his wife, Sharon J. Ege Buckley; sons, Kirk Freed, Orwigsburg, and Jeremy Freed, Schuylkill Haven; and daughters, Shannon Smith and Madeline Buckley, both of Deer Lake, according to his obituary.
In the will, Joseph Buckley named his wife, Sharon, as the executor, Fiorillo said.
