C.J. Walsh, III v. T. Isabella & 325 S. 18th Street, LLC ~ Appeal of: 325 S. 18th Street, LLC

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided September 15, 2026·No. 1352 C.D. 2024·Unpublished·Dumas

Opinion

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Charles J. Walsh, III, Laura Blau, and : Philadelphia Community Development : Coalition, Inc. :

: No. 1352 C.D. 2024

v. :

: Submitted: May 12, 2026 Teresa Isabella and 325 S. 18th Street, : LLC :

:

Appeal of: 325 S. 18th Street, LLC :

BEFORE: HONORABLE LORI A. DUMAS, Judge HONORABLE STACY WALLACE, Judge HONORABLE BONNIE BRIGANCE LEADBETTER, Senior Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE DUMAS FILED: September 15, 2026

325 S. 18th Street, LLC (Appellant) appeals from the order entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County (Common Pleas) on October 2, 2024, through which Common Pleas dismissed as moot Appellant’s “11th Motion to Terminate Philadelphia Community Development Coalition, Inc.’s [(PCDC)] Conservatorship” (11th Motion to Terminate). We affirm on alternate grounds and, in addition, deny Appellant’s “Emergency Application for a Stay and Supersedeas of Common Pleas’ July 16, 2026 Order Pending Appeal Pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1732(b) & 1733(b); and Pending Appellant’s July 17, 2026 Application for Relief to This Court” (Emergency Application).

I. BACKGROUND

This appeal marks the latest development in the decade-long dispute over a property located at 325 South 18th Street in Philadelphia (Property). As we previously recounted in another opinion addressing this situation:

On June 3, 2016, Charles J. Walsh, III, Laura Blau, and PCDC filed in Common Pleas a Petition for Appointment of a Conservator (Petition) under the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act, Act of November 26, 2008, P.L. 1672, No. 135, as amended, 68 P.S. §§ 1101-1120, commonly known as Act 135.1 The subject of the Petition was a blighted building located [on the] Property. [Teresa] Isabella was the owner of the Property at the time the Petition was filed. On April 28, 2017, 325 S. 18th Street LLC purchased the Property from Isabella for $1,000,000 and was granted intervenor status in the Act 135 proceedings.

1

Walsh and Blau have not participated in the underlying Act 135 litigation or any related appeals since May 2017. On May 17, 2017, Common Pleas granted the Petition and appointed PCDC as conservator of the Property. In September 2018, Common Pleas held a hearing on PCDC’s Final Plan for Blight Remediation (Final Plan), which detailed how PCDC would restore the Property to comply with applicable municipal code requirements. On September 24, 2018, Common Pleas approved the Final Plan. In the ensuing years, [Isabella and 325 S. 18th Street LLC (the appellants)] filed a plethora of motions in Common Pleas in which they sought to, inter alia, terminate the Act 135 conservatorship, remove PCDC as conservator, and disqualify multiple trial judges involved in the case, which were denied. [The a]ppellants have filed [more than 20] appeals from those adverse rulings in both this Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which were unsuccessful. In 2021, [the a]ppellants also filed two actions against PCDC and various individuals in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania asserting claims of conspiracy, which were

dismissed. One of those actions proceeded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which affirmed the dismissal of the matter. PCDC has since worked to remediate the property in accordance with the Final Plan.

Walsh v. Isabella (Pa. Cmwlth., Nos. 577 C.D. 2022, 624 C.D. 2022, 1166 C.D. 2022, 1235 C.D. 2022, 76 C.D. 2023, filed Dec. 23, 2024) (Walsh I), slip op. at 1-2, 2024 WL 5196043, at *1 (cleaned up). Common Pleas subsequently took additional actions to bring this matter to a close, including inter alia granting PCDC’s “Motion to Approve the Sale of the Property 325 S 18th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103” (Sale Motion) on January 6, 2022, which authorized PCDC to sell the Property to OCF Holdings LLC or an affiliate thereof, and issuing a “Final Order” on October 7, 2022, which awarded costs and fees to PCDC and dictated the handling of the sale’s proceeds. Id., slip op. at 2-5, 2024 WL 5196043, at *1-*3.

Appellant nevertheless continued to challenge PCDC’s conservatorship over the Property by repeatedly filing new, albeit substantially similar termination motions in Common Pleas. Eventually, Appellant filed its 11th Motion to Terminate on August 16, 2024, which Common Pleas dismissed as moot via its October 2, 2024 order. This appeal to our Court followed shortly thereafter.1

1 On January 29, 2026, we issued an order precluding Blau, Isabella, PCDC, and Walsh from filing briefs or otherwise participating in this appeal, due to their failure to file briefs in accordance with this matter’s scheduling order. Cmwlth. Ct. Ord., 1/29/26, at 1.

On June 16, 2026, we issued an opinion and order in this matter, through which we affirmed Common Pleas’ dismissal based upon our conclusion that Common Pleas had lacked jurisdiction to rule upon the 11th Motion’s merits, due to what we concluded was Common Pleas’ issuance of a final order on October 7, 2022. See Walsh v. Isabella (Pa. Cmwlth., No. 1352 C.D. 2024, filed June 16, 2026). Appellant subsequently filed an application for reargument; an application for relief, through which it sought enforcement of our June 16, 2026 order; and the aforementioned Emergency Application. On July 28, 2026, we issued an order, through which we granted the application for reargument in part, thereby vacating our June 16, 2026 opinion and order; dismissed as moot the application for relief; and indicated that the Emergency Application would be considered in tandem with this appeal. See Cmwlth. Ct. Ord., 7/28/26, at 1.

II. DISCUSSION2

A. Appeal

We summarize and reorder Appellant’s arguments as follows. First, Appellant asserts that Common Pleas erred by dismissing the 11th Motion to Terminate, because Common Pleas had not issued a final order in this matter at that point and thus retained jurisdiction to address the merits of the 11th Motion to Terminate, despite the appeals that were then pending before our Court. Second, Appellant relatedly maintains that Common Pleas’ October 2, 2024 order, through which the 11th Motion to Terminate was dismissed as moot, was an interlocutory order that was appealable as of right. Finally, Appellant contends that Common Pleas was required to terminate PCDC’s conservatorship pursuant to Act 135, due to PCDC’s purported continued failure to maintain the Property and consequent violation of the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code, as well as fraud allegedly committed by PCDC and Gardner Fox, a private construction firm engaged by PCDC to do work on the Property. Appellant’s Br. at 24-41.

We agree with Appellant that Common Pleas erred by dismissing the 11th Motion to Terminate on the basis of mootness. Common Pleas justified this dismissal by explaining that its October 7, 2022 order was final in nature and that, per Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 1701, Appellant’s request for relief via the 11th Motion to Terminate was moot because Appellant had already appealed that final order. Common Pleas Op., 10/25/24, at 2. This reasoning is inaccurate for several reasons. First, and contrary to Common Pleas’ assertion of finality, its October 7, 2022 order was not final in nature, because that finality was contingent

2 Our review in this matter is limited to determining whether Common Pleas abused its discretion or committed an error of law. Phila. Cmty. Dev. Coal., Inc. v. Fassett trustee for Fassett, 312 A.3d 377, 385 n.11 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2024).

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C.J. Walsh, III v. T. Isabella & 325 S. 18th Street, LLC ~ Appeal of: 325 S. 18th Street, LLC, (Pa. Ct. App. 2026).

C.J. Walsh, III v. T. Isabella & 325 S. 18th Street, LLC ~ Appeal of: 325 S. 18th Street, LLC (C.J. Walsh, III v. T. Isabella & 325 S. 18th Street, LLC ~ Appeal of: 325 S. 18th Street, LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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