SPRINGFIELD — A Worcester Superior Court judge on Monday denied an emergency motion to shut down the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse on State Street following an extensive mold outbreak.
A class action lawsuit was filed in Hampden Superior Court on Sept. 2 over the working conditions at the courthouse, but Massachusetts Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey — one of four named defendants in the lawsuit — chose to remove the case to Worcester Superior Court, where Judge Daniel Wrenn denied an emergency motion to shut the building down.
In his ruling, Wrenn outlined the long saga of the courthouse at 50 State St. — which has included multiple inspections, studies and environmental analyses performed by the state.
While the courthouse dilemma has lingered for years, it reached a new head when mold seemed to overtake widespread areas of the building in late August. Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni and other county officials evacuated their employees and the state shut down the courthouse for two weeks.
Meanwhile, attorneys for current and former employees of the courthouse from various departments filed class action lawsuits in both state and federal court. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, a former Hampden district attorney, transferred the federal case out of state and it remains live in Rhode Island.
A hearing in Providence is set for Tuesday afternoon.
Wrenn ruled that it is unclear at this point whether plaintiffs will be “irreparably harmed” if he did not order the Springfield courthouse closed. The judge highlighted efforts by the TRC Environmental Corporation, hired by the state to clean, remediate mold and test air and surface qualities for potential hazards or alarm bells.
“Clearly, further efforts need to be, and apparently are being, undertaken by the defendants to ensure that the courthouse’s air handling equipment functions properly, that there is no subsequent unsafe level of mold growth, and that any such issues are monitored periodically and remediated quickly. However, based on the current conditions at the courthouse, as reflected in TRC’s two memoranda, this court cannot conclude that the plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed if the courthouse remains open,” Wrenn wrote.
The judge added that he also must consider the public’s interest while weighing the possibility of shuttering the courthouse indefinitely.
“The public has a strong interest in maintaining access to justice, in the form of an open and functioning courthouse,” Wrenn concluded.
The trial court ordered the building back open on Sept. 9 after days of cleaning, mold eradication and environmental analyses.
The court has been limping along farming some matters to outlier courts in Hampden County and conducting others remotely.
Gulluni and Hampden County Register of Deeds Cheryl Coakley-Rivera have largely kept their employees out of the building. Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi recently announced he will refuse to send his inmates to the courthouse for proceedings only to sit for hours in the particularly moldy lockup on the basement level.
While the named plaintiffs in the state case are Coakley-Rivera and former longtime courthouse employee Judith Potter, the plaintiffs in the class action suit are court officers William Curtis and Richard Budzyna. That lawsuit makes nearly an identical argument over working conditions at the building and also asks for an emergency shutdown of the building.
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