Commonwealth appears and waives service
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appeared through counsel and returned a waiver of service; the waiver was sent Aug. 10, 2026 and its answer is due Oct. 9, 2026.
Source — courtlistener.com ↗Tufano v. Free and Accepted Masons of Union Lodge No. 291 et al
3:26-cv-02257 · U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
Pending; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has appeared and waived service, answer due Oct. 9, 2026, and defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc. moved to dismiss on Sept. 8, 2026, undecidedPennsylvania
CourtU.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
FiledAugust 6, 2026
StatusPending; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has appeared and waived service, answer due Oct. 9, 2026, and defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc. moved to dismiss on Sept. 8, 2026, undecided
Outcome—
Final disposition—
JurisdictionPennsylvania
Pro se—
Current / transferee court—
Transferred case—
Last researchedSeptember 23, 2026
About this case
Evidentiary treatment: This summarizes the plaintiff's own allegations as stated in the complaint or docket record cited below. It reflects what was filed, not a court finding, and is not a determination that the allegations are true.
Plaintiff sued the Free and Accepted Masons of Union Lodge No. 291. The case was filed 2026-08-06 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and assigned to Magistrate Judge Leo A. Latella.
The specific causes of action could not be established: CourtListener/RECAP holds a metadata stub for this docket with nature of suit, cause of action and jurisdiction all empty and no docket entries ingested, no published opinion exists on GovInfo, and PacerMonitor, Justia, UniCourt and midpage all refused or returned nothing. RECAP's party data lists only Tufano and the Lodge; the County of Lackawanna, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Patrick Tobin, Lori Twordusky and Tyler Technologies remain sourced solely to the 2026-08-07 docket-index sweep and are not independently corroborated. No relationship to C038 (the Freemasonry-related suit against Lackawanna judges) has been verified, and none is asserted here.
Defendants
- Lackawanna County
- Free and Accepted Masons of Union Lodge No 291
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- Patrick Tobin
- Lori Twordusky
- Tyler Technologies Inc
Source record
This page separates court/ruling records, party filings, research classifications, secondary sources and public statements. Unknown or unresolved fields remain labelled as such.
Outcome and research status
Outcome reason: Update 2026-08-25: Two entries dated Aug. 19, 2026 appear on the docket: a notice of appearance by Mary Katherine M. Yarish on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a returned waiver of service for the Commonwealth (waiver sent Aug. 10, 2026; answer due Oct. 9, 2026). The docket also establishes the nature of suit as 440 Civil Rights: Other and the cause as 28:1983, and records the complaint as fee-paid ($405). Entry 2 is an Emergency Motion to Stay Real Estate Tax Proceedings, which remains undecided. Update 2026-09-23: The complete docket entry list was read. A verbal order of Aug. 31, 2026 reassigned the case to Magistrate Judge Phillip J. Caraballo for all further proceedings. On Sept. 8, 2026 Daniel T. Brier and Frederick Lokuta entered appearances for defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc., which the same day filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. That motion is undecided. The Emergency Motion to Stay Real Estate Tax Proceedings also remains undecided.
Research status: Source-backed (CourtListener/RECAP docket entries through Aug. 19, 2026)
Research notes: Update 2026-08-23: CourtListener/RECAP confirms a filing date of 2026-08-06 (not previously on file) and assignment to Magistrate Judge Leo A. Latella, moving this case from essentially unindexed to a confirmed docket. RECAP holds a stub only: nature of suit, cause and jurisdiction are empty and no docket entries have been ingested. RECAP's party data lists only Tufano and the Free and Accepted Masons of Union Lodge No. 291; it does not corroborate the County of Lackawanna, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Patrick Tobin, Lori Twordusky or Tyler Technologies, which remain sourced solely to the 2026-08-07 docket-index sweep. Any relationship to C038 could not be verified and is not asserted. Docket record: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73732354/ Update 2026-08-25: The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is now corroborated as a real party defendant, having appeared through counsel and waived service. The other named defendants -- County of Lackawanna, Patrick Tobin, Lori Twordusky and Tyler Technologies -- remain uncorroborated by any docket source reached, and nothing was found bearing on the suggested relationship to C038; neither should be firmed up without further sourcing. The emergency motion to stay real estate tax proceedings concerns the same property-tax subject matter as C067, which supports the DSP008 grouping as a research inference rather than a court finding.
Related litigation
- Dispute group: Lackawanna County / Tyler Technologies
Chronology events
Sequence does not by itself prove motive or causation.
Bench reassignment
A verbal order reassigned the case to Magistrate Judge Phillip J. Caraballo for all further proceedings. The docket states no reason.
Source — courtlistener.com ↗Motion to dismiss filed
Defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc. appeared through Daniel T. Brier and Frederick Lokuta and moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The motion is undecided.
Source — courtlistener.com ↗Cite this page
Frank Tufano Litigation Research. "Tufano v. Free and Accepted Masons of Union Lodge No. 291 et al (3:26-cv-02257)". Research last verified September 23, 2026. https://suedbyfranktufano.com/cases/3-26-cv-02257-tufano-v-free-and-accepted-masons-of-union-lodge-no-291-et-al/