Litigants in continuing legal action between the Lycoming County register and recorder and Lycoming County commissioners were in court this week over the latest motion filed in the case.

Register and Recorder David A. Huffman has sued the county and Commissioners Scott Metzger, Marc S. Sortman and Mark A. Mussina, according to a complaint filed on Nov. 19, 2025.

J. Michael Wiley of McCormick Law Firm represents the defendants while Attorney Gregory A. Stapp is Huffman’s current counsel.

In summary, county officials approached Huffman in 2024 advising him they wanted to move the largest office in the courthouse to a new location in a building across from the courthouse, also on Third Street.

The latest court proceeding was over Huffman’s brief in opposition to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment/motion to dismiss Huffman’s petition for injunction.

In his conclusion, Stapp wrote there was a vast disagreement on the facts, and whether the parties had ever had a “consultation” as defined by the courts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In multiple legal contexts, he wrote, “Pennsylvania courts have drawn meaningful distinctions between consultation and related concepts such as consent, notice, and referral, consistently holding that consultation requires substantive, two-way engagement directed toward the welfare or decision of the consulting party.”

Based upon this definition, a “consultation” never occurred between the parties, he stated.

Furthermore, the defendants acknowledge in the brief that the welfare of the consulting party and those whom the move of his office would affect, such as the tip staves, is “irrelevant.”

“By their own admission,” Stapp wrote, “the defendants have not participated in a substantive, two-way engagement directed toward the welfare of the consulting party.”

Commissioners contended from the get go that they were responding to Huffman’s request for needing more space. Additionally, they said, the new space would have 1,000 more square feet of space and would be on one floor.

Huffman contended the county failed to address important logistical matters, such as how historic documents kept at the register and recorder office would be moved, where would they be stored, whether there will be enough square footage to be able to move all of the documents and files, or whether there will be manned security for the office.

Huffman further alleged that the commissioners issued a “pressure campaign” against him, persisting to this day. Huffman previously stated that, when he tried to get a meeting with commissioners to discuss the issue for weeks, his request had been denied.

In an interview with the Sun-Gazette, Huffman said it “was news to him that he was not cooperating.”

Senior Judge Charles H. Saylor is presiding over the case.