A federal judge yesterday threw out a suit brought last year by Paul Skoutelas, the former head of the Port Authority of Allegheny County who claimed his monthly pension was illegally slashed by more than $3,000.

In granting a motion to dismiss filed by the authority, U.S. District Judge David Cercone threw out Mr. Skoutelas' two federal claims of breach of contract and due process violations with prejudice, meaning he can't file them again in federal court.

He can, however, refile in Common Pleas Court and probably will.

His lawyer, Eric Stoltenberg, couldn't be reached yesterday to say if he'll do that, but his co-counsel, Bryan Campbell, said Mr. Skoutelas' case boils down to a contract dispute that could be heard in state court.

Left unresolved by Judge Cercone's ruling is a demand by the Port Authority in its motion that Mr. Skoutelas, 54, of Mt. Lebanon, repay nearly $65,000 of his pension that he's already received.

Should the case wind up in Common Pleas Court, the Port Authority almost certainly would file another counterclaim seeking that amount. The transit agency had previously asked that the case be transferred there.

Port Authority spokesman David Whipkey said he could not comment on the case.

In his suit, Mr. Skoutelas and his wife said the transit agency's board of directors violated the contract clause of the U.S. Constitution when it passed a resolution in 2007 that effectively reduced his pension from $9,062 a month to $5,947 a month.

In relying on a similar case involving SEPTA, the transit authority in Philadelphia, Judge Cercone said a resolution is not a law of the state and falls "woefully shy" of a legislative action that would be governed by the contract clause.

Mr. Skoutelas' second federal claim was that the authority violated his 14th Amendment right to due process by not having a hearing on the pension reduction.

Judge Cercone said the plan under which Mr. Skoutelas received those payments is not protected by the 14th Amendment.

Mr. Skoutelas began working for the Port Authority in 1980 as a transit planner and engineer and stayed until 1991, when he left to become CEO of the public transit system in Orlando, Fla.

He returned to Allegheny County as the executive director and CEO in 1997.

In 2002, the authority adopted a resolution establishing a Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP, to entice retirement-eligible employees to stay with the authority. Mr. Skoutelas entered the program that year.

He was receiving $5,947 a month from it and another $3,114 from another program called the Qualified Governmental Excess Benefit Agreement set up in 1998 to pay benefits to management above those capped by the Internal Revenue Code.

But last year the board of directors discontinued the excess benefit agreement and determined the payments Mr. Skoutelas had received under it were illegal.

The authority stopped paying him the $3,114 and also demanded that he pay back $64,778.