U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro on Monday refused to dismiss a federal civil racketeering lawsuit filed against the carpenters union and its leaders including now retired secretary-treasurer Edward J. Coryell Sr.
The suit, filed May 8, 2015 by the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, accused the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, now called the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, of racketeering by conspiring to interfere with the center's business in retaliation for losing the right to work at the Center in May, 2014.
The Center particularly accused the carpenters of vandalism and intimidation during the 2015 Philadelphia Auto Show. In their motion to dismiss, the union and its leaders said they may have been uncouth, but they were not racketeers.