Pa. Superior Court tosses Carl R. Greene's libel appeal

Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Carl R. Greene, former head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, of a lower court's dismissal of a libel suit he filed against The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Greene was required to pay for a hearing transcript to proceed with his appeal. At one point he submitted a check for the transcript, but then he stopped payment, the appellate court said. The lack of payment was ground for dismissal.

In 2010, Greene was fired as executive director after the authority's board of commissioners discovered he had secretly settled multiple sexual-harassment complaints against him.

A year later, Greene filed suit in Common Pleas Court against Philadelphia Media Network Inc., then the owner of the newspapers and their website. He alleged that the newspapers conducted "abusive muckraking attacks" that ruined his reputation as a housing authority administrator.

Common Pleas Court Judge Lisa M. Rau granted a motion of summary judgment in favor of the newspapers.