WARREN — The husband of the Niles City Schools superintendent is suing a teacher at the school and a man running for the Niles Board of Education.

Michael Thigpen’s business, Thigpen Excavating, was damaged when husband and wife Chris Chieffo — a candidate for the board of education — and Abbey Chieffo — a science teacher at the high school — sued Thigpen, his excavation company, Superintendent Ann Marie Thigpen, school board members and other employees.

Chris Chieffo was a middle school teacher and for a short time he was assistant principal at the elementary school.

He and Abbey Chieffo filed the suit in February 2018 after he was fired, accused of using sick time to take off work to coach boys golf for Howland Local Schools during an October 2017 tournament.

The $4 million suit was voluntarily dismissed in October in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. The couple did not receive any monetary compensation, but the exact details of the dismissal were never released.

Messages were left with numbers believed to belong to both Chris and Abbey Chieffo but were not returned. An attorney who represented them in that case said he has not been called on to represent them in this case, filed Tuesday, also in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

When the case was dismissed in October, the attorney said the couple felt it wasn’t in their “best interest” to continue the case.

The Chieffos’ suit claimed Michael Thigpen didn’t take kindly to the Chieffos “badmouthing” his wife and the Thigpens were angered when the Chieffos hired another excavating company to prepare soil for a small patio and they interfered with the process.

Thigpen’s complaint against the couple states their lawsuit was filed with malice and was a “perverted” attempt to “accomplish an ulterior purpose,” to influence the superintendent and / or board of education with respect to various hiring practices involving Christopher Chieffo.”

Thigpen states the suit cost his business $25,000, but does not state how.

The district said the lawsuit was frivolous from the start, while the Chieffos claimed in the original suit they were victims of fraud, defamation, invasion of privacy, civil conspiracy and interference with a business relationship.

Chieffo is a candidate in the November election for the Niles Board of Education. Also running is Kimberly E. Barrell, Joseph Bruno, Rebecca Archer DePanicis, P.J. Kearney, Shelly Lamb, Susan Giannetti Longacre, Monica Merlo and Bobby Seifert.