SCRANTON – A federal judge has ruled that the Scranton School District will not be subject to a default judgment and have additional time to respond to litigation brought by a former physical education teacher and varsity baseball coach at West Scranton High School, who claimed the District unfairly accused him of violating a settlement reached in a prior action for presenting awards to student athletes.
George M. Roskos first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on June 10 versus Scranton School District and its Director of Human Resources, John Castrovinci. All parties are of Scranton.
“On April 30, 2018, the District summoned plaintiff to a meeting and suspended him with pay as the Head Varsity Baseball Coach, without any facts or details whatsoever. When asked by plaintiff why he was suspended, plaintiff was simply informed: ‘Based on complaints,” the suit said.
“At no time did anyone else from the District Administration offer any facts or details to support any of the alleged ‘complaints’ cited to justify plaintiff’s untimely suspension. Plaintiff then appeared the following day, May 1, 2018, for a subsequent meeting at the District Administration Building as instructed.”
Roskos said the-then Superintendent of the District spoke generally on a myriad of past and present issues related to his coaching position, but never offered “any facts, details or explanation of the evidence to support any of her generalized and rambling statements”, and instead reaffirmed his suspension with pay, pending an investigation.
After a later positive evaluation for his coaching performance during the spring 2018 season, he was then suspended from his coaching duties again, this time for the entire 2018-2019 school year. Roskos said he was never given the opportunity to explain his side of the story and never received his procedural due process.
After a civil rights lawsuit between Roskos and the District spanning November 2018 to April 2019, the action ended with a settlement – wherein, Roskos resigned from his coaching duties. Just over one year later, the District sent Roskos a written warning letter, alleging he was violating the terms of the settlement by presenting achievement awards to student athletes, even though he was doing so only as a private citizen.
“To that end, on May 13, 2021, plaintiff received an email from the principal of WSHS, Robert DeLuca, scheduling a Zoom meeting the following day with him and defendant Castrovinci. The email simply stated that the purpose of the meeting was ‘to discuss you distributing awards for the baseball team again this year,” per the suit.
“Plaintiff, once again through his legal counsel, responded by renewing his position on the matter, and by reminding defendant Castrovinci that he still has not provided plaintiff with any substantive response or justification for the District’s position, despite being invited to do so a year earlier.”
The meeting was rescheduled to an in-person meeting at WSHS’s Alumni Room on June 7, and Roskos claimed he never received the formal charges against him, the meeting was not recorded and that he only learned at the meeting that the District believed his distribution of the awards constituted Title IX violations.
When Roskos questioned how he had violated the settlement, Castrovinci allegedly responded, “We’re not going to get into that,” and suspended Roskos without pay, effective June 9.
Through his counsel, Roskos is pursued a default judgment against the defendants via a motion filed on July 16.
“The complaint and summons were served upon defendants by a Pennsylvania State Constable, Ted Rosencrans, a competent adult individual who is not a party to this action. Defendants’ answer to complaint was due on or before July 2, 2021 pursuant to the applicable provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. However, defendants have failed to plead or otherwise defend this action in advance of the aforesaid July 2, 2021 deadline,” the motion stated.
“Consequently, plaintiff is entitled to judgment of default against defendants pursuant to the provisions of Rule 55(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Neither defendant against whom default judgment is sought has appeared personally or by a representative in this action.”
UPDATE
However, counsel for all parties filed a joint stipulation on July 28 to withdraw the motion for default judgment and provide the defense additional time to submit an answer to the complaint, citing “excusable reasons” for the defense’s initial delay.
“The undersigned counsel have since communicated their respective positions about the procedural posture of this case and, after doing, hereby agree and stipulate as follows: Plaintiff will withdraw his motion for entry of default judgment; and on or before Aug. 13, 2021, defendants will file an answer and affirmative defenses to plaintiff’s complaint. A proposed order is included with this stipulation for approval by the Court,” the stipulation said.
The following day, July 29, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Judge Joseph F. Saporito approved the order
For violation of due process under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the plaintiff is seeking, jointly and severally, compensatory damages, punitive damages (against Castrovinci only), plus interest, costs of suit, attorney’s fees and such other and further relief which this Court deems just and proper.
The plaintiff is represented by Frank J. Tunis of Tunis Law, in Dickson City.
The defendants are represented by Karl A. Romberger Jr. of Sweet Stevens Katz & Williams, in New Britain.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 3:21-cv-01027
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com