Cogan v. County of Beaver

690 A.2d 763, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 81, 1997 WL 78200
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 21, 1997
DocketNo. 1482 C.D. 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 690 A.2d 763 (Cogan v. County of Beaver) 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
Cogan v. County of Beaver, 690 A.2d 763, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 81, 1997 WL 78200 (Pa. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

SMITH, Judge.

The County Commissioners’ Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Beaver County (trial court) that denied CCAP’s petition to intervene in a local agency appeal in [764]*764which Sheriffs Deputy Patrick J. Cogan is seeking to secure benefits under the Act commonly known as the Heart and Lung Act, Act of June 28, 1935, P.L. 477, as amended, 53 P.S. §§ 637-638. CCAP states the question involved as whether the trial court properly denied intervention, where Cogan advances a novel interpretation of the Act that, if accepted, would require counties to expend over $1 million; where the claim is based on job functions unique to Beaver County; where CCAP is empowered and required by statute to represent the interests of all of Pennsylvania’s counties; and where CCAP could not pursue an appeal if Beaver County lost the case and decided not to appeal.

When the County denied Deputy Cogan’s request for benefits he filed an appeal with the trial court pursuant to the Local Agency Law, 2 Pa.C.S. §§ 551-555, 751-754. CCAP petitioned to intervene in that proceeding. After conducting a hearing, the trial court dismissed the petition for lack of standing of CCAP to intervene, citing Sierra Club, Pennsylvania Chapter v. Hartman, 130 Pa.Cmwlth. 100, 567 A.2d 339 (1989), aff'd, 529 Pa. 454, 605 A.2d 309 (1992). Deputy Cogan has filed a motion to quash CCAP’s appeal, asserting that it is from a non-appealable interlocutory order. This Court directed that the motion be listed for argument along with the merits of the case. The trial court stayed the proceedings there.

The official Note to Pa. R.A.P. 341, relating to final orders, generally, explains that an order denying a petitioner the right to intervene no longer may be deemed a final order within the meaning of Rule 341 following 1992 amendments to that Rule. The Note also states that, in an appropriate case, such an order might fall under Pa. R.A.P. 312, relating to interlocutory appeals by permission, or Pa. R.A.P. 313, relating to collateral orders. As the motion to quash points out, and CCAP agrees, the present appeal is not from an order enumerated in Pa. R.A.P. 311, relating to interlocutory orders appealable as of right, and CCAP did not follow any of the procedures prescribed for securing appeal by permission under Rule 312. Therefore, it must be determined whether the trial court’s order denying intervention is a collateral order under Rule 313.1

As stated in Watson v. City of Philadelphia, 665 A.2d 1315, 1317 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995), Pa. R.A.P. 313(b) defines an appealable collateral order as “ ‘[1] an order separable from and collateral to the main cause of action where [2] the right involved is too important to be denied review and [3] the question presented is such that if review is postponed until final judgment in the ease, the claim will be irreparably lost.’ ” CCAP asserts that the order determining the question of its intervention obviously is collateral to the main determination of Deputy Cogan’s eligibility for benefits. CCAP states further that the claim it advances, a right to participate in Deputy Cogan’s local agency appeal before the trial court as a party, obviously will be lost irreparably if the case is permitted to proceed to final judgment before CCAP’s appeal is heard — at that time there will be no trial in which it could participate.

As for the second prong of the Rule 313(b) test, that the right involved is too important to be denied review, CCAP notes that the trial court denied its motion on the basis of lack of standing. CCAP argues that this conclusion was in error, relying primarily upon Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board v. Raneri, 97 Pa.Cmwlth. 352, 509 A.2d 939 (1986). There this Court concluded that a common pleas court did not err in determining that an association of local restauranteurs had standing to intervene to protect the economic interests of its members in an appeal to common pleas court from the denial of a request for a special liquor license. The Court concluded that the association had demonstrated that it would be aggrieved by the loss of dues-paying members and that some members would be aggrieved by the loss of their businesses if the application were granted. Further, unlike the situation in Application of El Rancho Grande, Inc., 496 Pa. 496, 437 A.2d 1150 (1981), the association’s efforts were not duplicative, because [765]*765its individual members had not acted independently.

CCAP asserts that Cogan has suggested in this record that he has some unique job duties that bring him within the ambit of the Heart and Lung Act, and it contends that, should the trial court rule in his favor on that basis, the precedent would send “economic shock waves” through all of Pennsylvania’s county governments. CCAP further notes that, without its full participation as a party intervenor, it would lack the ability to appeal such a ruling if Beaver County should decide not to appeal.

The Court concludes that CCAP’s appeal is not from a collateral order meeting all three prongs of the Rule 313(b) test. Assuming that the order denying CCAP’s request to intervene is separable from and collateral to Cogan’s cause of action seeking a grant of Heart and Lung Act benefits, CCAP has not met the other requirements. CCAP is correct that the merits of the petition to intervene necessarily are considered as part of the analysis to determine whether the claim asserted is “too important to be denied review.” However, the mere assertion of a right to intervene is not per se too important to be denied review. The appellant must at a minimum show actual entitlement to intervene under the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure in order to meet this test.

In Pennsylvania Ass’n of Rural and Small Schools v. Casey, 531 Pa. 439, 613 A.2d 1198 (1992), the Supreme Court quashed an appeal from this Court’s denial of certain petitions for intervention in a matter filed in this Court’s original jurisdiction. Although that appeal was decided under the procedures in effect before the 1992 amendments to Rule 341, in considering the merits of the petitions to intervene the Supreme Court noted that, despite the grant of the right to intervene in Pa. R.C.P. No. 2327 to any person with a legally enforceable interest that would be affected by the determination,2 Pa. R.C.P. No. 2329(2) provides that a petition to intervene may be denied if the petitioner’s interest is already adequately represented. See also Acorn Development Corp. v. Zoning Hearing Board of Upper Merion Township, 105 Pa.Cmwlth. 138, 523 A.2d 436 (1987), appeal denied, 517 Pa. 632, 539 A.2d 813 (1988) (right to intervene under Pa. R.C.P. No. 2327(4) is not absolute).

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690 A.2d 763, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 81, 1997 WL 78200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cogan-v-county-of-beaver-pacommwct-1997.