Architects sue Diocese of Youngstown over Mooney design plan payment

YOUNGSTOWN

An architectural firm has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, saying the firm was improperly denied payment for its design services for a new Cardinal Mooney High School building, which was never built.

Strollo Architects Inc. sued the diocese, the school, and Bishop George Murry in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for more than $175,000.

Strollo said its staff committed thousands of hours to the project to design a new $25 million high school building to be built near Western Reserve Road and never agreed to donate its labor.

However, with $14 million of a $23 million fund-raising goal having been raised, the bishop decided to terminate the project due to failure to raise the needed funds, and to keep the school in its 1956-vintage building on Youngstown’s South Side, using the donated funds to renovate the existing building, the suit said.

When Strollo billed the diocese for its services, the diocese replied it had no contract with the architects, whose services the diocese said were donated, according to the suit.