Burrell Education Ass'n v. Burrell School District

674 A.2d 348, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 122
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 2, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 674 A.2d 348 (Burrell Education Ass'n v. Burrell School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burrell Education Ass'n v. Burrell School District, 674 A.2d 348, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 122 (Pa. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

DOYLE, Judge.

This is an appeal by the Burrell School District and the Board of School Directors of the Burrell School District (collectively, the “District”) from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County, which denied post-trial relief and affirmed the terms and conditions of the March 20, 1995 order of the court of common pleas. The March 20, 1995 order granted a permanent injunction directing the District to comply with all of the terms and conditions of the October 25, 1994 Memorandum of Understanding (Agreement) executed by five members of the District and the Burrell Education Association, a certified exclusive collective bargaining representative for the professional employees of the District (The Association and its members will be collectively referred to as the “Association”).

Since January of 1994, the Association and the District had been negotiating in an attempt to reach an agreement on a collective bargaining agreement for the provision of professional services to the District. The parties reached an impasse before the commencement of the 1994-95 school year, but the Association returned to work without a contract. Then, on October 6, 1994, the Association went on strike and the District’s schools were closed.

As a result of the work stoppage, on October 25, 1994, an Agreement was entered into and signed by the Association and five members of the District. The Agreement provided, in part, that the parties would engage in non-binding arbitration of the parties’ unresolved bargaining issues and the arbitration would be completed within time periods provided in Act 88.1 The Agreement also stated that the District would make a minimum financial offer of $7,000.00 plus the cost of a bump step over a four-year contract period, that no loss of workdays by the professional staff would occur, nor would any reprisals or harassment occur. Immediately following the Agreement, the Association returned to work. The work stoppage had lasted fourteen school days.

On February 9,1995, the District informed the Association that it would not honor the Agreement, and then on February 28, 1995, the District began taking deductions for medical insurance premiums and life insurance premiums from the Association’s paychecks for the period of time in which the work stoppage occurred.2

The Association then filed a complaint in equity and a petition for a preliminary injunction seeking enforcement of the terms of the Agreement. A preliminary injunction hearing was held, and the court of common pleas granted a permanent injunction on March 20, 1995. The order of the court required the District to begin arbitration immediately, to cease and desist from deducting medical and life insurance premiums from the Association’s paychecks, and to remit the deductions already made.

The District then filed a motion for post-trial relief, asserting that the District was [350]*350permitted to withhold the insurance premiums in a lockout situation pursuant to Philadelphia Housing Authority v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 153 Pa.Cmwlth. 20, 620 A.2d 594, petition for allowance of appeal denied, 536 Pa. 634, 637 A.2d 294 (1993). The court denied the post-trial motion, and the District now appeals to this Court.

On appeal, the District argues that the trial court erred (1) in issuing a permanent injunction upon a petition for only a preliminary injunction; and (2) in holding that a public employer does not have a limited right to lockout its public employees once they have engaged in a work stoppage under this Court’s holding in Philadelphia Housing Authority.

The District’s first issue is that the trial court erred in treating the hearing on the preliminary injunction as a final hearing on the merits.3 The District requests a remand for a full hearing on the permanent injunction. The Association counters that this issue has been waived since the District failed to raise it in its motion for post-trial relief. We agree.

Pa.R.C.P. No. 227.1, which pertains to post-trial relief, is explicit as to the conditions precedent which must be met to preserve an issue for appellate review and avoid an issue being waived. Specifically, Pa. R.C.P. No. 227.1(b)(1) and (b)(2) state:

(b) Post-trial relief may not be granted unless the grounds therefor,
(1)if then available, were raised in pretrial proceedings or by motion, objection, point of charge, request for findings of fact or conclusions of law, offer or proof or other appropriate method at trial; and
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are specified in the motion. The motion shall state ... the grounds-Grounds' not specified are deemed waived unless leave is granted upon cause shown to specify additional grounds.

(Emphasis added.)

Only issues which a party specifically raises in its post-trial motion are preserved and will be considered on appeal. Mendicino v. Rendina, 523 Pa. 293, 566 A.2d 854 (1989); Borough Council for the Borough of Millbourne v. Bargaining Committee of the Millbourne Borough Police, 109 Pa.Cmwlth. 474, 531 A.2d 565 (1987) (since the appellant failed to file a post-trial motion to an order effective in thirty days, all issues were waived pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. No. 227.1, and the appeal was quashed).

Here, the District did not raise the impropriety of the trial court’s grant of a permanent injunction until after it treated the court’s order as such and filed the post-trial motion under R.C.P. No. 227.1. We, therefore, find that the issue has been waived.4

The remaining issue to resolve in this case is whether the District is precluded from deducting from the Association’s paychecks premiums for insurance for the period of time that the Association was on strike. The District relies upon this Court’s holding in Philadelphia Housing Authority as support for its argument. The Association, on the other hand, argues that Philadelphia Housing Authority is not controlling and not dispositive to the facts in the instant case.

In Philadelphia Housing Authority, the collective bargaining agreement between the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) and [351]*351the Union had expired. PHA made a final offer to the Union, which was rejected and negotiations then reached an impasse; however, the Union did not strike. PHA then unilaterally implemented its last offer and reduced the employee’s benefits. This Court recognized that although a public employer’s economic weapon is a unilateral implementation of its final proposal, such action can only occur where the employees are striking. In so holding, we quoted the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, which stated:

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674 A.2d 348, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burrell-education-assn-v-burrell-school-district-pacommwct-1996.