An Olyphant bar owner is suing the town and nine borough officials after council voted in January to nullify his $130,000 bid to buy a borough-owned lot on Delaware Avenue.
Michael Dennin, who owns the Bar and Company at 415 W. Lackawanna Ave., filed a lawsuit in Lackawanna County Court on Tuesday through his attorney, Michael Pisanchyn, alleging that borough officials “have done everything they can” to prevent him from purchasing a vacant lot that Olyphant owns at 105-109 Delaware Ave. Olyphant appraised the land at $71,300 and held an auction for it on Dec. 3, with Dennin and Queen City Tavern owner John Basalyga getting into a bidding war over the property, which abuts Basalyga’s tavern at 400 W. Lackawanna Ave., and driving the price up to $130,000 for Dennin’s highest bid.
A perspective of E. Lackawanna Ave. in Olyphant Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Amid disagreements between borough officials and Dennin and Pisanchyn in December and January, council voted Jan. 7 to nullify Dennin’s bid, attributing the decision at the time to Dennin failing to comply with the conditions of the auction. As part of the nullification, the borough kept his $7,100 bid security.
“It was vindictive and reckless for the Defendants to seize and take the $7,100 from Plaintiff despite his stating he was ready, willing and able to close on the property and it is believed and averred the Defendants did this because of the publicity they received by the Times Tribune and the letters sent by Plaintiff’s attorney,” Pisanchyn wrote in the lawsuit.
Pisanchyn, who founded the limited liability company that owns the Bar and Co. building on Lackawanna Avenue, quickly criticized the decision in January and said litigation would ensue.
Dennin is now suing solicitor and borough Manager C.J. Mustacchio, who Pisanchyn argues has a conflict of interest holding both roles, and every member of borough council, both in their official and individual capacities. Those council members are: James Baldan, Robert Hudak, Michael Abda, Dina Harrington, recently resigned Councilman Jerry Tully, David Krukovitz and Elizabeth Frushon. The lawsuit also names the borough itself, Mayor Jonathan Sedlak, three unnamed co-conspirators and five unnamed land surveyors.
Mustacchio declined to comment on the litigation.
Following the Dec. 3 auction, “the Defendants have done everything they can to prevent the buyer from actually purchasing the property despite everyone stating Plaintiff over-paid which is odd and leads to further proof of the intentional, reckless and/or negligent actions of all Defendants,” Pisanchyn wrote.
He contends Olyphant officials acted vindictively and in their own personal interests.
The 80-page filing points to articles published in The Times-Tribune where Olyphant officials discussed their plans for the lot, including saying in October 2023 that the borough was seeking grant funding to turn it into a pocket park. Olyphant bought the lot in June 2020 for $30,000 and then spent $44,745 to tear down a blighted, vacant building on the land two years later.
In a July 5 article about Basalyga’s plans to buy the former OTOWN Bar & Grill to convert into the Queen City Tavern, the lawsuit cites reporting that Basalyga had approached council about buying the land, and that council and Basalyga would have the land appraised with Baldan saying the borough had renovated its nearby train station with the possibility of Basalyga buying the pocket park.
“It is believed and therefore averred that the Borough of Olyphant and the Olyphant Borough Defendants intended on selling the property without making proper public notice with the hopes that it would not be challenged,” Pisanchyn wrote in the lawsuit.
In response to the article, Pisanchyn’s law firm sent the borough a letter advocating for the land to be used as a pocket park and saying an anonymous donor was lined up who would fully fund the park. The lawsuit references the letter and includes it as an exhibit.
Shortly after the Dec. 3 auction, Pisanchyn raised concerns over the Queen City Tavern storing its garbage receptacles on the lot and asked for their removal, as well as another neighboring property owner at 406-408 Lackawanna Ave., Anthony Barrett of NAB Holdings LLC of Dunmore, building a deck that encroached on the property, which Pisanchyn notes is the nephew of Councilman Michael Abda. The borough told the tavern to move its waste receptacles and issued Barrett a stop-work order Dec. 10 instructing him to remove the deck.
“In this regard, right before the auction Abda’s nephew began to have a large deck being built off of his property onto the property at issue,” Pisanchyn wrote. “It is believed and therefore averred that this deck was so much over on the property it would only be done believing that someone else was going to win the bid for that property and allow the deck to be built.”
The borough later discovered the Queen City Tavern’s deck also encroached on the property, prompting the town to extend the sale deadline one week from Dec. 30 to Jan. 6 and offer Dennin a $2,106 discount representing the 1.62% of the 6,650-square-foot property covered by the deck.
Pisanchyn argued the borough did nothing to have the property removed, and that it allowed the encroachments.
The lawsuit references a Dec. 16 email Pisanchyn sent to Mustacchio alleging the borough could be intentionally trying to cause a breach of contract, and that once all non-borough property was removed, Dennin would arrange to pay the borough. The following day, Mustacchio requested that Dennin sign a sales agreement, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also references Basalyga telling The Times-Tribune after the auction, “When it got to $100,000, I’m like, ‘Alright, honestly, I’m going to keep bidding. I’m going to drive the number up because, whatever it goes to, it’s going to go to the borough. The borough is going to win,’ and I think the borough is the only one that won last night, so I got the number up to $130,000. … If he wants to do that, let him pay for it.”
“It is believed and therefore averred that in exchange for allowing John Basalyga to store his personal property on the Olyphant Borough property located at 105-109 Delaware Ave, John Basalyga would drive up the price of the property at auction or allowed to purchase the property,” Pisanchyn wrote.
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $50,000, plus compensatory damages, punitive damages, interest and other relief across 10 counts: breach of contract, breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, fraud/intentional misrepresentation, fraud/intentional concealment, fraud/fraudulent omission, fraud/negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual relations, tortious interference with economic advantage, negligence and specific performance.