Architect wants dead man's papers pulled

A Fayette County architect is asking the state Supreme Court to revoke the license of another architect who died in May.

Mark Altman is asking the high court to hear his case against Michael Molnar, who died at age 77. Altman accused Molnar of misrepresenting his college career in Hungary when he applied for his state architectural license in 1960.

Molnar, who was hired by Altman's father as a draftsman nearly a half-century ago and later opened his own firm in Uniontown, told previous hearings that Hungary's communist regime quashed records of his education.

Altman cited a statement from a college in Budapest that there are no records of Molnar studying there. But the state examiner accepted the late architect's statement that Hungary's communist government would not grant him a diploma after he completed his four-year education and thesis.

Commonwealth Court in November upheld the Architects Licensure Board's dismissal of Altman's 2004 complaint.

Pittsburgh lawyer John Gismondi said Altman will have to prove to the court that the case could have future repercussions on state licensing practices for the lawsuit to be heard.

"If the goal of the litigation is to stop Mike Molnar from practicing architecture, the good Lord has done that by taking him to the other side," Gismondi told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com