Commonwealth v. Pennsylvania State Troopers Ass'n

23 A.3d 966, 611 Pa. 56, 2011 Pa. LEXIS 947, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2661
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 28, 2011
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 23 A.3d 966 (Commonwealth v. Pennsylvania State Troopers Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Pennsylvania State Troopers Ass'n, 23 A.3d 966, 611 Pa. 56, 2011 Pa. LEXIS 947, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2661 (Pa. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

Justice McCaffery.

Appellant, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, appeals from that portion of the opinion and order of the Commonwealth Court invalidating a provision of an Act 1111 interest arbitration award concerning the pay Pennsylvania State Troopers are to receive while on “union leave.” Concluding that the Commonwealth Court erred in its determination that this provision violates statutory law, we reverse the Commonwealth Court.

Appellant and Appellee, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (“Commonwealth”), were parties to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) pertaining to the working conditions of Appellant’s members, which expired on June 30, 2008. When Appellant and the Commonwealth reached an impasse in their negotiations for a successor CBA, Appellant requested the appointment of a board of arbitration pursuant to Section 4(a) of Act 111, 43 P.S. § 217.4(a).2 After a hearing, the Act 111 [968]*968interest arbitration panel selected to resolve the impasse entered an award concerning several issues. With respect to the issue of union leave, Article 30 of the award contained the following language:

Upon written request by [Appellant], Union officers shall be released from duty. Union officers released from duty pursuant to State law shall be paid by the Commonwealth at the amount designated by [Appellant’s] Board of Directors, not to exceed the rate of the highest ranking member of the bargaining unit with appropriate longevity. Any amount paid by the Commonwealth, including the cost of all benefits, shall be reimbursed by [Appellant] to the Commonwealth in accordance with law.

Petition for Review of an Act 111 Interest Arbitration Award, filed by the Commonwealth in the Commonwealth Court on January 22, 2009, at 2.3

The Commonwealth petitioned the Commonwealth Court to review this and one other provision of the interest arbitration award pursuant to Section 768(b) of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 763(b).4 Thereafter, a divided panel of the Commonwealth Court vacated the union leave provision of the award. Commonwealth v. Pennsylvania State Troopers Ass’n, 979 A.2d 442, 447 (Pa.Cmwlth.2009).5

In coming to its determination, the Commonwealth Court first addressed its relevant scope of review. Act 111 explicitly prohibits any appeal of Act 111 arbitration awards. 43 P.S. § 217.7. However, we have long held that limited judicial review of Act 111 arbitration awards is permitted under the confines of the narrow certiorari scope of review. See Pennsylvania State Police v. Pennsylvania State Troopers’ Ass’n (“Betancourt”), 540 Pa. 66, 656 A.2d 83, 89-90 (1995). “[T]he narrow certiorari scope of review limits courts to reviewing questions concerning: (1) the jurisdiction of the arbitrators; (2) the regularity of the proceedings; (3) an excess in exercise of the arbitrator’s powers; and (4) deprivation of constitutional rights.” Id. Thus, the initial question for any court asked to review an Act 111 arbitration award is whether the issue or issues raised on appeal fall or falls under any of the four prongs of such circumscribed scope of review.

In this case, the Commonwealth Court concluded that the third prong of narrow certiorari, namely, the limits of the power or authority of the Act 111 arbitration panel, was implicated. An arbitration panel exceeds the limits of its powers when its award orders an “illegal act.” City of Pittsburgh v. Fraternal Order of Police, Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, 595 Pa. 47, 938 A.2d 225, 230 (2007). The Commonwealth ar[969]*969gued below, as it does here, that the union leave provision of the award violated Section 5302(b)(2) of the State Employees’ Retirement Code (“SERC”), 71 Pa.C.S. § 5302(b)(2), and, in so doing, required the Commonwealth to perform an illegal act.

Section 5302 determines what constitutes “credited state service” for computing retirement benefits for state employees. 71 Pa.C.S. § 5302. Section 5302(b)(2), the section at issue here, concerns “creditable leaves of absence,” and gives service credit to state employees on paid leave for service as officers of collective bargaining organizations under Act 111 or other public employee laws. Section 5302(b)(2), however, contains a series of provisos that limit in some manner the creditable leaves of absence recognized by this section. Relevantly, Section 5302(b)(2) states:

Provided, ... that the employer shall fully compensate the member, including, but not limited to, salary, wages, pension and retirement contributions and benefits, other benefits and seniority, as if he were in full-time active service; and that the Statewide employee organization shall fully reimburse the employer for all expenses and costs of such paid leave....

71 Pa.C.S. § 5302(b)(2) (emphasis added).

The Commonwealth Court agreed with the Commonwealth’s argument that Section 5302(b)(2) obligated the Commonwealth to pay a trooper on union leave only the compensation that the trooper would receive “as if he were in full-time active service.” Thus, because the union leave provision directed the Commonwealth to pay an amount of compensation likely to be higher than the active-service salary of the trooper on union leave, the court determined that the award would force the Commonwealth to violate a statutory requirement.

The Commonwealth Court wholly based its conclusion on its holding and analysis in Kirsch v. Public School Employees’ Retirement Board, 929 A.2d 663 (Pa.Cmwlth. 2007) (“Kirsch /”), aff'd, 603 Pa. 439, 985 A.2d 671 (2009) (“Kirsch II”).6 In Kirsch I, school employees on union leave received greater compensation than they would have received had they remained in their positions in the school district. For purposes of the employees’ retirement benefits, the school district had traditionally reported to the Public School Employees Retirement System (“PSERS”) only the compensation the union-leave employees would have earned had they remained in their pre-union-leave positions in the school district. However, a CBA was entered into by the school district and the union that required the school district to report to PSERS the actual, higher wages received by union-leave employees, not the wages they would have received had they simply remained in their school district jobs. When the union-leave employees retired, they sought pensions based on their union salaries. PSERS opposed what it deemed to be a quest for inflated pension benefits.

The union-leave employees filed grievances with the Public School Employees’ Retirement Board (“Board”), but did not prevail. The Board’s decision was based on language in Section 8102 of the Public School Employees’ Retirement Code (“PSERC”), 24 Pa.C.S.

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Bluebook (online)
23 A.3d 966, 611 Pa. 56, 2011 Pa. LEXIS 947, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2661, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-pennsylvania-state-troopers-assn-pa-2011.