Spam Mistake Blamed for Lawsuit Dismissal

John J. Moser, Of The Morning Call, reports a Pennsylvania federal judge dismissed a woman’s lawsuit. The suit claims East Penn Township, PA police used excessive force. The judge’s dismissla of the law suit said her attorney ignored a dismissal motion and the judge’s order to respond to it.

But attorney John P. Karoly Jr. of South Whitehall Township, who represents Susan R. Shuey and her husband, John, has asked Judge A. Richard Caputo to reconsider, blaming the lapse on the judge’s e-mail errantly going to his office computer’s “spam” folder.

The Shueys sued the township, township Supervisor William Schwab and police officers Brian P. Horos and Alan W. Beishline on June 28 for more than $300,000 plus attorneys’ fees. The suit stemmed from a June 23, 2006, incident in which Susan Shuey, 47, was charged with obstructing administration of law, simple assault, persistent disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The suit says she was twice shocked with a stun gun during her arrest.

The suit says the Shueys approached Horos as he wrote a traffic ticket to a motorist to talk about a ticket issued earlier that day to their son Josh. The suit says East Penn had a policy, ”conceived and directed” by Schwab, to cite as many motorists as possible to ”create a revenue stream” from fines.

It says Horos slammed Shuey to the road, and Beishline used a Taser on her.

On Feb. 11, a county judge sentenced Shuey to six months on Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, a program that lets participants clear their records by completing probation.

East Penn filed a motion to dismiss the suit, but Karoly didn’t respond, and on Aug. 21 Caputo set a deadline of this week to respond or the suit would be thrown out.

On Tuesday, the same day The Morning Call carried a story about the looming deadline, Caputo dismissed the suit.

Karoly on Thursday filed a motion asking Caputo to reconsider. The motion said the e-mail of his son, attorney John P. Karoly III, who reviews electronic filings in the office, identified Caputo’s order as spam or junk e-mail. So he did not deliver it.

The technological glitch was compounded by extremely unfortunate timing. It turns out a senior paralegal, who would normally double-check the younger Karoly’s review, was on vacation.  Also, a part-time technology consultant for the office was unavailable.

The motion says Karoly didn’t realize the lapse until getting Caputo’s dismissal order. It doesn’t explain why Karoly didn’t respond to East Penn’s original motion to dismiss.

But Karoly argues his failure to answer “at most minimally delayed” the litigation. He said the case presents “viable claims” and should be decided on its merits.