A judge has not immediately blocked the city of Scranton from demolishing a pair of blighted houses on one lot in South Side, but a lawsuit about the dispute continues.

The owner of the condemned homes at 524 and 524 Rear Gibbons St., Dennis Smith, filed an emergency petition in Lackawanna County Court on Sept. 15 seeking a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from razing the structures.

The city for years has annually razed condemned, vacant houses that have fallen into disrepair. On Aug. 19, the city announced a batch of upcoming demolitions of nine vacant, blighted properties, to be razed in late summer and early fall. That list included 524 and 524 Rear Gibbons St.

Smith, who has owned the Gibbons Street property since 2016, sued to spare the house fronting along Gibbons Street and a smaller house in the backyard at 524 Rear Gibbons St., along Hamm Court.

In his Sept. 17 injunction lawsuit, Smith claimed the city did not give him notice of the impending demolitions and he only found out about it on Sept. 15, when his groundskeeper told him the city was placing cones around the property to demolish the two houses on Sept. 16.

After a hearing held Sept. 17 in the dispute, Lackawanna County Judge Michael Barrasse issued an order on Oct. 15 denying the preliminary injunction sought by Smith.

According to the order:

• The property became condemned in 2008. After acquiring it in 2016, Smith began in 2018 making arrangements and repairs to the rental houses to get their condemnation status removed. That removal step never occurred and the property has remained condemned.

• Under the city’s rental registration rules, Smith listed in his contact information an address in Lake Ariel.

• On Sept. 24, 2021, and Feb. 3, 2025, the city sent Smith notices of demolition via certified and regular mail to the Lake Ariel address. Regarding the Feb. 3 notices, the certified mail was returned as undeliverable but the standard mail was not returned.

• Smith claimed he never got the Feb. 3 mailings because he had moved in October 2024 to South Webster Avenue in Scranton. He never updated his address with the city’s rental registration program.

• A preliminary injunction is a temporary remedy to prevent irreparable injury or gross injustice by preserving the status quo until the parties’ dispute can be fully resolved. To prevail, the party seeking an injunction must establish all of six criteria, including: an injunction is necessary to prevent immediate and irreparable harm that cannot be compensated adequately by money damages; greater injury would result from refusing it than granting it, and it will not substantially harm other interested parties; granting it would properly restore the parties to their status before the alleged wrongful conduct; the party seeking injunctive relief has a clear right to it and likely would prevail on the merits; the injunction is reasonably suited to abate the offending activity; and it will not adversely affect the public interest.

• If the petitioner fails to establish any one of the six prerequisites, there is no need to address the others.

The judge determined Smith failed to demonstrate he could not be adequately compensated by money damages and that he is unlikely to prevail on the merits of the case. Furthermore, the city “provided sufficient notice” of the intent to demolish the property and Smith’s testimony at the Sept. 17 hearing was “speculative and unpersuasive.”

The order also directs the city to now file its answer to Smith’s complaint, which remains pending.

City Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said Friday, “The buildings have not been demolished and the city will proceed according to the judges order.”

Monday Update

THEN: The owner of two blighted houses on one lot in South Scranton sued the city to prevent it from demolishing the buildings.

NOW: A judge denied a preliminary injunction to spare the condemned houses at 524 and 524 Rear Gibbons St., but the lawsuit continues.