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 did not answer by its Oct. 9, 2026 deadline and moved to dismiss on that date instead. Defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc.’s motion of Sept. 8, 2026 is fully briefed — brief in support Sept. 22, an order setting an opposition deadline Sept. 24, opposition Sept. 30 and a supplement Oct. 6 — and undecided. Two motions to dismiss are pending.Pennsylvania
CourtU.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
FiledAugust 6, 2026
StatusPending; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not answer by its Oct. 9, 2026 deadline and moved to dismiss on that date instead. Defendant Tyler Technologies, Inc.’s motion of Sept. 8, 2026 is fully briefed — brief in support Sept. 22, an order setting an opposition deadline Sept. 24, opposition Sept. 30 and a supplement Oct. 6 — and undecided. Two motions to dismiss are pending.
Outcome—
Final disposition—
JurisdictionPennsylvania
Pro se—
Current / transferee court—
Transferred case—
Last researchedOctober 11, 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 County of Lackawanna, Tyler Technologies, Inc., the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Patrick Tobin and Lori Twordusky. The case was filed 2026-08-06 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The pleading is captioned a Verified Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial, and the docket records the nature of suit as 440 Civil Rights: Other with the cause of action as 28:1983.
Its opening allegations are that Lackawanna County hired Tyler Technologies to carry out a property assessment of the county in order to re-evaluate property values and increase taxes, and that the resulting proposed valuation is so elevated that the assessor is, in the plaintiff's words, either unqualified to perform the assessment or incentivised to overestimate. A separate emergency motion filed the same day asks the court to stay real-estate tax proceedings. No relationship to C038, the Freemasonry-related suit against Lackawanna judges, has been verified, and none is asserted here.
Sourcing limitation (7 Oct 2026): the complaint itself was obtained and its first page read, which is what establishes the six defendants named above and the opening allegations. Pages two to ten are scanned images with no machine-readable text, so the enumerated causes of action and the relief sought could not be read.
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 docket snapshot (PacerMonitor public case page, read 2026-10-11 and current to Oct. 9, 2026); no document on this docket is obtainable, so no order has been read.
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. Update 2026-10-03: The defendant list is no longer uncorroborated. The free federal mirror has ingested a full party block for this docket and it names all seven parties, confirming the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the County of Lackawanna, Tyler Technologies, Patrick Tobin and Lori Twordusky alongside the lodge. The docket coding and the Aug. 31, 2026 reassignment to Magistrate Judge Phillip J. Caraballo are likewise confirmed. The complaint and twelve exhibits have also become retrievable from the Internet Archive mirror, though they were not read this pass. The docket has not moved since Sept. 8, 2026 and both motions remain undecided.
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 October 11, 2026. https://suedbyfranktufano.com/cases/3-26-cv-02257-tufano-v-free-and-accepted-masons-of-union-lodge-no-291-et-al/