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January 9, 2023

Journal Inquirer CFO sues paper over alleged owed back pay; suit hints at possible JI sale

By Skyler Frazer

The chief financial officer and general manager of the Journal Inquirer is suing the newspaper and its publisher for almost $1 million, possibly delaying the potential sale of the Manchester-based news outlet, court records show.

Walter Rudewicz, represented by lawyer Marc P. Mercier from Beck & Eldergill P.C., filed a lawsuit against Journal Publishing Co. Inc. and owner and publisher Neil Ellis in December, accusing both of breaching a contract and agreement by not paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred salary across more than a decade.

In total, Rudewicz seeks $966,183.22. That includes double the deferred salary Rudewicz says he’s owed and a final 52-week $149,200 annual salary he says he was promised should he leave the company.

Rudewicz was still a JI employee when the suit was filed on Dec. 13, court documents said. 

According to the suit, Rudewicz and Ellis made an agreement in May 2008 that the company would defer payments of Rudewicz’s salary to a later date. The lawsuit states that the deferred salary was “recorded as a debt, credit and/or liability owed by the plaintiff on the defendant Journal Publishing’s General Ledger and audited financial statements.”

Rudewicz has been an employee at the Journal Inquirer since 1979, according to the lawsuit. The agreement with Ellis was that Rudewicz would be paid no later than when he chose to retire from the company, according to the suit.

Ellis and the Journal Inquirer paid Rudewicz several lump sum deferred salary payments in 2010 and 2011, but by February 2022, Rudewicz was still owed $408,491.61, court records say.

Also that February, the lawsuit says Rudewicz and the company entered into an agreement that states Rudewicz will be paid his $149,200 salary a year after he leaves the company, no matter the reason. The agreement also states Rudewicz will get to keep his company car and remain on the company’s healthcare plan for two years, court records said.

The lawsuit states that Ellis was exploring a sale of the Journal Inquirer in July 2022. During that time, Ellis told Rudewicz that he and the company wouldn’t be paying back the remaining deferred salary accrued since 2008. 

A preliminary virtual hearing on a prejudgment remedy for the case is scheduled for Jan. 19, according to court documents. The prejudgement remedy Rudewicz is requesting includes the court securing $966,183.22 from Ellis and the company, which could include assets or property that the two entities own.

Rudewicz’s lawyer did not respond to the Hartford Business Journal’s request for comment on the case.

Ellis is being represented by Eric L. Sussaman, a partner at West Hartford law firm Weinstein & Wisser.

“We strongly deny the allegations and believe they have no merit,” Sussaman said. 

Ellis declined to speak much about the pending case.

“His (Rudewicz) claim is complete baloney, I'll leave the rest up to the lawyers,” Ellis told the Hartford Business Journal.
 

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