BIONDILLO MURDER Widow's lawyers want settlement to be thrown out

The case had been settled for $50,000.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Lawyers are asking that a settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit against former mob boss Lenny Strollo and his associates be thrown out and the case be reinstated.
This comes two weeks after the parties were admonished in Mahoning County Probate Court for not having the settlement approved there before filing it in common pleas court.
The suit was filed in common pleas court in February 2002 by Linda Biondillo of Campbell, who said Strollo and others were responsible for the death of her husband, Ernie Biondillo.
Ernie Biondillo was 53 when he was shot in his car on Youngstown's East Side while driving to work in June 1996. Strollo has admitted giving the order to have Biondillo killed because the two were rivals in organized crime operations.
Linda Biondillo settled the suit out of court for $50,000 in March, according to common pleas court documents. When Judge Timothy P. Maloney of probate court learned of the settlement, he summoned the parties into his court.
Legal matter
He said there can be no wrongful-death settlement unless it's first approved by the probate court, as required by Ohio law. Because that approval was not sought, Judge Maloney said the settlement cannot stand.
Biondillo's lawyers said during the hearing that they didn't intend to bypass the probate court. An entry memorializing the settlement agreement should have included language making it final only after probate court approval.
The lawyers filed documents this week in common pleas court asking that Visiting Judge John R. Milligan vacate the settlement agreement and put the case back on the court's docket.
bjackson@vindy.com