YOUNGSTOWN — City officials have asked that the city’s $834,608 civil lawsuit against developer Dominic Marchionda, two of his companies, and former city Finance Director David Bozanich be dismissed because the city failed to timely serve them with the complaint.

The Tuesday filing by Hillary F. DeSaussure, who represents the city in the case, came after all of the defendants filed Feb. 2 motions to dismiss because of the failure to serve them with the civil lawsuit complaint.

DeSaussure wrote in Tuesday’s filing: “Upon court approval of this motion, plaintiff intends to immediately refile its complaint.”

DeSaussure urged visiting Judge W. Wyatt McKay, a retired Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge assigned to the case, to dismiss it, writing the defendants argued “that since service was never effectuated under (a court rule) that the city’s complaint has not been ‘commenced’ under the rule and this court lacks jurisdiction over the matter. Accordingly, the city moves to dismiss its complaint under (a court rule) without prejudice.”

McKay is expected to dismiss the case shortly.

Douglas Ross — the attorney for Marchionda, U.S. Campus Suites LLC and Erie Terminal Place LLC — wrote in a Feb. 2 motion to dismiss that a Nov. 25, 2024, attempt by the Mahoning County Clerk of Court to send summons and the complaint by certified mail to his clients and Bozanich were unsuccessful.

The city’s attorneys didn’t file a request until Dec. 2, 2025, for the clerk of courts to send the information to the defendants by regular mail.

Because the lawsuit was filed Nov. 11, 2024, more than a year passed before the defendants received the summons and complaint, which violates Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure and should result in the case being dismissed, Ross wrote.

Timothy Cunning, Bozanich’s attorney, filed a similar motion Feb. 2 for McKay, a retired Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge, to dismiss the case for the same reason.

Service of process issues have been a problem since Michael P. Ciccone took over in January 2025 as clerk of courts. The county Democratic and Republican parties are seeking to have Ciccone removed through a court action, accusing him of using “discriminatory and degrading language,” and failing to “perform core statutory duties.”

McKay had set the trial date for Nov. 9.

McKay had given the city until Monday to respond to the motions to dismiss. On Tuesday, DeSaussure wrote that because of the failure to timely serve, the case “should be dismissed in its entirety and without prejudice.” The latter means the city can refile the claim, which DeSaussure wrote will occur immediately after McKay’s ruling.

Ross wrote in his Feb. 2 filing: “Because plaintiff did not serve defendants within one year of filing the complaint, the dismissal of the complaint is appropriate under (court rules). Further, at this juncture, the court lacks jurisdiction to enter judgment against defendants. Any judgments entered by this court would be a nullity and void.”

While the summons and complaint weren’t delivered to defendants in the required one-year time frame, Bozanich, Marchionda and the two companies had filed responses, counterclaims and motions in the civil lawsuit.

Ross addressed that by writing: “The Ohio Supreme Court holds that when the affirmative defense of insufficiency of service of process is properly raised and preserved, a party’s active participation in the litigation of a case does not constitute waiver of defense.”

Cunning also requested that the intervention status in the case granted by McKay to Hartford Fire Insurance Co., Bozanich’s bonding company when he was city finance director, also be dismissed.

Hartford paid $100,000 to the city as partial payment of the lawsuit against Bozanich and is seeking to get that money back from the former finance director. McKay on Oct. 14 dismissed Bozanich’s counterclaim against Hartford that it shouldn’t have paid the city.

DeSaussure wrote Tuesday: “Bozanich argues in his motion to dismiss that if the city’s complaint was never commenced, then other pending claims, such as Hartford’s intervening complaint, were similarly never commenced. The same is true for the Marchionda defendants’ counterclaims against the city.”

The city filed the civil lawsuit Nov. 21, 2024, against the two men and two companies seeking to recoup $834,608 it claimed was improperly taken in a “calculated scheme.”

Before seeking the dismissal for failure to timely serve the case, attorneys for Marchionda and his two companies as well as Bozanich responded in court documents that the lawsuit should be dismissed because it is past the statute of limitation and barred by a previous plea bargain agreement, among other issues.

Bozanich pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2020, to one count each of bribery and tampering with records, both felonies, and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful compensation of a public official. Bozanich spent nearly a year in a state prison for his crimes.

On the same day, Marchionda pleaded guilty to four felony counts of tampering with records, all occurring on Oct. 6, 2011, admitting he used false invoices to get money from the city for his Erie Terminal Place downtown-housing project to pay bills he owed for the Flats at Wick.

U.S. Campus Suites LLC pleaded guilty to a felony count of receiving stolen property for illegally obtaining money from the city. As part of the deal, charges against Erie Terminal Place LLC were dropped.