On January 6, 2007 Paul T. O'Malley, Scranton, passed away.  He was a military veteran, having served his country honorably.  At the time of his death, he was divorced, but he had two children, one was 17 years old and the other was 23.

About a week after Paul T. O'Malley passed, his children received notification from the Veterans' Administration regarding the effect of his death upon benefits he had been receiving. That's how both children found out that their father was dead. You can imagine the shock of getting a letter like that, but it became even more shocking for the children of Paul T. O'Malley.

When they immediately contacted other family members, they learned that their father's funeral was already conducted and they both had been excluded. There was no obit in the paper. Their Uncle Pat, that being Patrick M. O'Malley, Scranton School Director, took possession of the body and disposed of the remains without consulting with, or notifying, the two natural children of Paul T. O'Malley, which happens to be as illegal as the day is long. See 20 Pa. C.S.A., section 305 (c), which provides that if there is no spouse, the legal right to dispose of the remains of the deceased lies in the children.  The funeral director was Carl Sovino.

After a confrontation over what Patrick M. O'Malley did, Pat then put an obit in the paper 11 days after Paul T. O'Malley died.

Fastforward to January 6, 2011.  Patrick M. O'Malley, by and through John J. Brazil, Esq.,  then filed a Petition to take over control of the estate of Paul T. O'Malley. No Will. It was served upon the children of Paul T. O'Malley on January 20th. It's Docket No. 0551-2008, as evidenced by the paperwork. 

The daughter of Paul T. O'Malley, Amber O'Malley, responded by filing a Petition of her own, demanding that as the natural daughter, she should be awarded control of the estate. The law provides that she and her brother gets the estate anyway.

When you click on Amber O'Malley's Petition, notice that the docket number used in Patrick O'Malley's Petition, 0551-2008, has been crossed out and replaced with a new number.  That's because when the clerk at the Register of Wills went to the file to confirm that Docket No. of 0551-2008 was that of the estate of the deceased, Paul. T. O'Malley, she discovered that 0551-2008 was a Docket No. for another person, whose estate matters concluded in May of 2010. 

How did a skilled attorney like John J. Brazil walk into the Register of Wills of Lackawanna County on behalf of Patrick M. O'Malley with a prepared Petition to open an estate using the docket number of someone else he had represented back in 2008.  Yes, he was the lawyer for that deceased person.  Using an existing docket number of someone else saved only a $55.00 fee.

These two trains will collide on February 14, 2011 at 1:30 where Patrick M. O'Malley can explain to Judge Harhut why he used someone else's docket number to open an estate, why he buried the father of the children of Paul T. O'Malley without notice to his natural children, why he failed to follow several other estate laws, and how he thinks he can run for county commissioner with this kind of gross illegal and unethical conduct exposed