SUNBURY - An Elysburg man who spoke at an April 8, 2014, Kulpmont borough council meeting about a landlord registration fee filed a defamation lawsuit May 26 against The News-Item, its parent company and owners, and reporter Rob Wheary.
William Henry, of 105 Ridge Acres Road, co-filed the lawsuit with his wife, Jodi Lynn Henry. He seeks $50,000 from each of five claims: defamation, false light, negligence, invasion of privacy and loss of consortium.
According to the complaint, an April 10, 2014, article written by Wheary - including information that code officer Russ Moroz told borough council five landlords were late to pay the borough's annual registration fee and received $200 citations - contained inaccurate and defamatory statements.
Newspaper archives show Henry appeared in two sentences in the story.
"Bill Henry, one of the delinquent landlords, complained at Tuesday's meeting that he hadn't received enough notice before being slapped with a $200 fine. But Henry said Wednesday a clerical error was made on his end," the story read.
Among the Henrys' claims of inaccuracies are that Bill Henry never said a clerical error was made and that Wheary failed to report that council voted not to take any action against the landlords.
Minutes from the council meeting show confusion among borough council members and Moroz on the dates notification letters and citations were mailed. Moroz said paperwork was mailed to landlords March 20, but Councilman Nicholas Bozza said he had a letter from a landlord dated April 1 with a fee due date of March 1.
"Mr. (William) Henry states that he brought copies (of the letter) for everyone and he states that he was given five days to pay it (the fee), but he got the citations in the mail at the same time as the letters," the minutes read. "...Mr. Henry states that to be honest, he did not even know when they are suppose to be paid and states that he does not even know if Jodi (Henry) knows that," the minutes read.
The minutes show Council member Bruno Varano ended the conversation and said council would "look further into" it.
The issue was not brought up again during the meeting, which included a lengthy public comment period on other topics. But it was apparently brought up during a 100-minute executive session at the conclusion of the meeting that, according to the minutes, involved "contractual, personnel matters and possible litigation." Minutes show council voted after the executive session to send a new letter requesting payment for rental registrations due within 10 days of receipt of the letter and waiving of fines for non-payment.
Conducting executive sessions at the conclusion of public meetings is customary at Kulpmont, and Wheary, who covers the meetings on a regular basis, typically leaves when the executive session starts, The News-Item reports.
It wasn't announced that the landlord registration issue was among the topics to be discussed at that night's session.
Neither Wheary nor anyone else at the newspaper was contacted about the new letter or waiving of fines for non-payment, including after the story with the discussion involving Henry was published.
Counsel for the newspaper, J. Timothy Hinton Jr., sees no liability for the April 10, 2014, article, and plans to vigorously defend the case in court.