Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 v. City of Philadelphia

546 A.2d 137, 118 Pa. Commw. 132, 130 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2991, 1988 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 586, 59 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,587
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 22, 1988
DocketAppeal 3329 C.D. 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 546 A.2d 137 (Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 v. City of Philadelphia) 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
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 v. City of Philadelphia, 546 A.2d 137, 118 Pa. Commw. 132, 130 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2991, 1988 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 586, 59 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,587 (Pa. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge Doyle,

The Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 5 (FOP) seeks review of an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County which confirmed an Act 1111 arbitration award allowing the Philadelphia Police Department (Department) to administer a polygraph test to all applicants who wished to transfer voluntarily into the Departments Special Investigations Unit (SIU). We affirm.

On January 31, 1986, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin M. Tucker caused a directive to be sent by teletype advising all Department personnel of the formation of the SIU. The SIU was founded to help fight corruption within the Department, and to pursue major [134]*134investigations involving organized crime, drugs, prostitution, gambling and vice. Paragraph three of the teletype read “[a]mong other considerations for acceptance to the unit shall be the requirement to submit to a polygraph examination and personal interview.”2 Another requirement of the process was the filling out of a questionnaire which was to be verified by polygraph. Shortly after the teletype, the FOP filed a grievance claiming that the directives requirement that all SIU applicants submit to a polygraph test constituted a unilateral change in the FOP members’ conditions of employment, in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.3

On February 6, 1986, the FOP also filed a Complaint in Equity seeking a status quo injunction restraining the City of Philadelphia (City) from enforcing the polygraph requirement pending arbitration of the FOP’s grievancé. At the initial hearing on the equity matter, the trial judge advised the parties that a Commonwealth Court decision on polygraph testing was due soon, Marion v. Green, 95 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 210, 505 A.2d 360 (1986), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 514 Pa. 633, 522 A.2d 560 (1987). Consequently, the City agreed to the judges request that the polygraph testing be delayed pending this Court’s decision in Marion.

Two days after our decision in Marion, the City of Philadelphia, at the behest of the Department, proposed the following regulation:

[135]*135Assignment and transfer for uniformed positions within the Police Department in units specifically assigned to the investigation or enforcement of narcotics, vice (gambling, prostitution, liquor), organized crime, intelligence, and internal police investigations may be conditioned upon the satisfactory completion of a polygraph examination at the discretion of the Police Commissioner.

The Department also informed the trial judge at the second hearing in the equity action that it would postpone implementation of the polygraph examinations pending the outcome of arbitration.

On April 17, 1986, a hearing was held before an arbitrator at which both sides presented live testimony, as well as the testimony adduced at previous proceedings in both state and federal court.4 Ultimately, he ruled that there was nothing in the collective bargaining agreement touching upon the establishment of varying criteria when assignments or transfers to special units are being affected. The arbitrator also found that the Department had no duty to bargain regarding voluntary transfers and/or assignments and that the Department and the FOP had not shown that it and the City had, by prior practice, shown any criteria by which voluntary transfers and/or assignments would be made within the Department, or that the polygraph examination was an excluded criterion. Last, and most important, the arbitrator found that the Departments imposition of the [136]*136polygraph requirement under the circumstances did not violate our decision in Marion.5

The FOP then filed a petition for relief under Section 7314 of the Uniform Arbitration Act, 42 Pa. C. S. [137]*137§7314, in the court of common pleas seeking to vacate the award. That court upheld the arbitrators decision and this appeal followed.6

We note initially that the proper scope of review over an Act 111 arbitration award is that articulated by our Supreme Court in the Washington Arbitration Case, 436 Pa. 168, 259 A.2d 437 (1969), where the court held that courts have jurisdiction to review Act 111 arbitration awards in the nature of narrow certiorari. Such review is limited to questions concerning (1) the jurisdiction of the arbitrator; (2) the regularity of the proceedings; (3) an excess in the exercise of the arbitrators powers; and (4) constitutional questions. Id. The continuing vitality of this narrow scope of review was recently reaffirmed in Appeal of Upper Providence Township, 514 Pa. 501, 526 A.2d 315 (1987) where the Supreme Court held the Uniform Arbitration Act standard of review was inapplicable to Act 111 proceedings.

[138]*138The FOP contends that the arbitrator committed “legal error” in holding that the Department could ask applicants for transfer into the SIU to submit to a polygraph examination in the absence, of a Civil Service regulation allowing the Department to do so. We would first like to point out, however, that there is no “legal error” or “question of law” review of Act 111 arbitration awards. See Appeal of Upper Providence Township, 514 Pa. at 513 n. 4, 526 A.2d at 321 n.4. Consequently, we. take the FOP’s argument to be that the arbitrator acted in “excess in the exercise of his powers” in that he .would allow the employer to perform an illegal act, i.e., an act that was not within the authority of the municipality or was prohibited by law. Conley v. Joyce, 482 Pa. 263, 393 A.2d 654. (1978); Washington Arbitration Case.

We note initially that Section 7321 of the Crimes Code, 18 Pa. C. S. §7321, provides:

(a) Offense defined—A person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree if he requires as a condition for employment or continuation of employment that an employee or other individual shall take a polygraph test or any form of a mechanical or electrical lie detector test.
(b) Exception—The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to employees or other individuals in the field of public law enforcement .... (Emphasis added.)

Thus, under this statute police departments are legally able to give polygraph tests to police officers as conditions of their employment.

The FOPs argument, then, rests primarily on two court decisions, DeVito, v. Civil Service Commission of the City of Philadelphia, 404 Pa. 354, 172 A.2d 161 (1961)7 and Marion, as well as á provision of the Phila[139]*139delphia Home Rule Charter (Charter). In DeVito, two officers were dismissed on a number of charges, including a charge related to their refusal to submit to a polygraph test.

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Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 v. City of Philadelphia
546 A.2d 137 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1988)

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546 A.2d 137, 118 Pa. Commw. 132, 130 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2991, 1988 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 586, 59 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fraternal-order-of-police-lodge-no-5-v-city-of-philadelphia-pacommwct-1988.