Giovagnoli v. Civil Service Commission

890 A.2d 1165, 2006 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 20
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 20, 2006
StatusPublished

This text of 890 A.2d 1165 (Giovagnoli v. Civil Service Commission) 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
Giovagnoli v. Civil Service Commission, 890 A.2d 1165, 2006 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 20 (Pa. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION BY

President Judge COLINS.

The above-captioned cases have been consolidated for argument and for this [1166]*1166Court’s disposition on remand from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania with regard to Petitioner Diana Giovagnoli’s petition for attorney fees pursuant to the Commonwealth Agency Adjudicatory Expenses Award Law, often referred to as the “Costs Act.”1

In July of 1997, Diana Giovagnoli was terminated from her employment as a caseworker with Monroe County Children and Youth Services (CYS). Giovagnoli appealed her dismissal to the State Civil Service Commission (Commission), requesting reinstatement and back wages. After conducting hearings, the Commission determined that Giovagnoli had been improperly discharged and was entitled to be reinstated, but did not award her back wages. Giovagnoli appealed to this Court, which remanded the matter to the Commission for the award of back wages. The Commission, on remand, directed CYS to pay Giovagnoli wages and benefits she would have received had she remained employed. Because the parties could not agree, the Commission held a hearing and issued an order settling the amount.

Thereafter, Giovagnoli filed with the Commission a petition seeking an award of attorney fees, costs, and expenses. CYS in response averred that Giovagnoli had not provided any authority or factual basis that would support an award of counsel fees. The Commission concurred with CYS and, on June 19, 2002, denied Giovag-noli’s petition. Giovagnoli appealed the denial to Commonwealth Court, which quashed her petition seeking review of the order denying attorney fees. Giovagnoli v. Civil Service Commission, 823 A.2d 223, 235-36 (Pa.Cmwlth.2003).

With respect to its decision to quash, Commonwealth Court noted that Section 3(e) of the Costs Act provides for limited appellate review, as follows:

(e) A party dissatisfied with the fee determination made under subsection (a) may petition for leave to appeal such fee determination to the court having jurisdiction to review final orders of a Commonwealth agency under 42 Pa.C.S. (relating to judiciary and judicial procedure). If the court denies the petition for leave to appeal, no appeal may be taken from the denial. If the court grants the petition, review of the fee determination shall be in accordance with the standards in 2 Pa.C.S. § 704 (relating to disposition of appeal).

71 P.S. § 2033(e) (emphasis added).

The term, “adversary adjudication” is defined as excluding proceedings “[rjesolving disputes concerning the dismissal ... of any employee of this Commonwealth.” Section 2 of the Costs Act, 71 P.S. § 2032. This Court further explained that it previously had recognized that, review of a Costs Act decision is permissible only where a petition expressly styled as one seeking leave to appeal has been filed and granted. See Giovagnoli, 823 A.2d at 236 (citing Filice v. Department of Labor and Industry, 660 A.2d 241 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995)). Because Giovagnoli had filed a “petition for review,” rather than a “petition for leave to appeal,” this Court determined that she had “neither sought nor been granted leave to appeal from the Commission’s order denying the grant of attorney fees, as required under Section 3(e) of the Costs Act.”

After appealing this Court’s decision to the Supreme Court, Giovagnoli was permitted to appeal from this Court’s determination in order to examine whether the [1167]*1167Commonwealth Court’s dependence upon the proper form of her petition constituted a sufficient basis to support its order quashing it. In its February 23, 2005 decision, the Supreme Court stated that “the requirement to file a petition for leave to appeal does not arise from the Appellate Procedural Rules or involve a right to appeal, but rather, is premised on a statute, Section 3(e) of the Costs Act.” The Supreme Court further reasoned that the scope of the General Assembly’s intention, as reflected in Section 708 of the Judicial Code, is sufficiently broad to encompass an erroneously labeled petition for leave to appeal, as in the present matter, and that a decision to dismiss or quash an appeal or a petition for leave to appeal need not be based on jurisdictional concerns, but should be consistent with the “statutory and rule-based emphasis on substance over form.”

In this regard, the Supreme Court found that although this Court did not expressly base its quashing of Giovagnoli’s appeal on jurisdictional grounds, it nevertheless erroneously relied upon Department of Environmental Resources v. Oermann, 158 Pa.Cmwlth. 560, 632 A.2d 603 (1993), which raised the issue of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court determined that Commonwealth Court had not presented any “substantial, substantive deficiency in Giovagnoli’s petition such as might otherwise warrant the dismissal.” Accordingly, the Supreme Court vacated Commonwealth Court’s order and remanded the matter for further consideration, allowing for its possible dismissal based upon substantive deficiency, or for its possible denial pursuant to the exercise of Commonwealth Court’s discretion under the Costs Act.

On appeal, Giovagnoli contends that CYS commenced the present adjudicatory action against her by wrongfully terminating her, by discriminating against her, and by not providing her the benefits to which she was entitled. Giovagnoli avers that her petition filed with the Commission against CYS presented the elements of an “adversary adjudication” because: (1) it averred that CYS discriminated against her; (2) it sought reimbursement to Giov-agnoli for benefits owed; and (3) petitions alleging wrongful discharge should be considered adversary adjudications under 71 P.S. § 2033.

Giovagnoli also argues that because she won her legal action establishing that CYS had no justification for terminating her employment, she is entitled to attorney fees and expenses in the amount of $10,000.00 pursuant to Section 3 of the Costs Act, 71 P.S. § 2033, and that because CYS exhibited obdurate, vexatious, and dilatory conduct throughout the case, she is also entitled to attorney fees pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 2503(7).

In rebutting Giovagnoli’s contentions, CYS maintains that: (1) procedurally, Giovagnoli failed to provide specific information to meet the statutory pleading requirements under the Costs Act, 71 P.S. § 2033, for a successful claim for attorney fees; (2) substantively, Giovagnoli is not entitled to attorney fees against a Commonwealth agency because she did not have an “adversary adjudication” within the meaning of the Costs Act, because her adjudication involved the dismissal of a Commonwealth employee, which is excluded by the Costs Act (71 P.S. § 2032), and because CYS did not initiate the proceedings as required by the Costs Act for the imposition of attorney fees; (3) Giovagno-li’s claim of discrimination, which would remove the matter from the Cost Act’s restrictions on adversary adjudications, must also fail because Giovagnoli did not prevail in her discrimination claim, leaving her prevailing only with respect to her [1168]

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Related

Giovagnoli v. CIVIL SERV. COMM.(MONROE COUNTY CYS)
823 A.2d 223 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2003)
Department of Environmental Resources v. Oermann
632 A.2d 603 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1993)
Filice v. Department of Labor & Industry
660 A.2d 241 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)
Reeves v. Pennsylvania Game Commission
598 A.2d 605 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
890 A.2d 1165, 2006 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giovagnoli-v-civil-service-commission-pacommwct-2006.