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Architects say Youngstown Diocese breached Mooney contract
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 the firm never offered or promised to donate its labor to design a new $25 million high-school building to be built near Western Reserve Road, nor did the bishop, diocese or school board ask it to do so.
However, with $14 million of a $23 million fundraising goal having been raised, the bishop decided in May 2014 to terminate the project due to failure to raise the needed funds, and to keep the school in its building on Youngstown’s South Side, using the donated funds to renovate the existing building, the suit said.
After Strollo billed the diocese for its services in January 2015, the diocese replied that, because construction never started, it had no contract with the architects, whose services the diocese said were donated, according to the suit.
Architect Gregg Strollo, a 1973 Mooney graduate, and a principal member of the downtown Youngstown firm bearing his name, had been “assisting with the upkeep of the crumbling 1956 building for nearly 20 years,” the lawsuit said.
After diocesan officials considered an $18 million proposal to renovate the existing building and the proposed new building, the school board authorized Strollo Architects in September 2013 to proceed with a complete design for a new building and development of fundraising campaign materials, the lawsuit said.
That agreement constituted a binding contract, the complaint added.
“Plaintiff and its architects had worked for thousands of hours to design a large, complex and beautiful school building” on time, the suit said.
“Defendants cannot conscientiously retain the benefits of plaintiff’s labor without making just compensation,” it added.
The lawsuit does not refer to any written contract terms specifying when, or how much, the diocese was to pay the firm.
Strollo’s receptionist referred a reporter to his lawyers, Richard J. Thomas and J. Michael Thompson.
“It’s our policy not to comment on pending lawsuits, because those matters are under the jurisdiction of the court,” they said.
Patrick Kelly, chief financial officer for the diocese, referred a reporter to Monsignor John Zuraw, diocesan chancellor.
Strollo’s firm billed the diocese for more than $350,000, Monsignor Zuraw said.
“The Cardinal Mooney board is frankly stunned by the invoice and by the current legal action,” the chancellor added.
“While his interest in Cardinal Mooney is appreciated, there was never any contractual agreement with Mr. Strollo or his firm, and at all times, the board’s understanding was that he would be compensated only if the necessary funds had been raised and a contract for the construction of a new school had been awarded to his firm. Since that did not occur, the current lawsuit is being contested,” Zuraw concluded.
The case is assigned to Judge Shirley J. Christian.