In re Nomination Petition of Warren

692 A.2d 1178, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 193
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 22, 1997
DocketNos. 833, 834, and 835 C.D. 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 692 A.2d 1178 (In re Nomination Petition of Warren) 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
In re Nomination Petition of Warren, 692 A.2d 1178, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 193 (Pa. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

DOYLE, Judge.

Mark Johnson, Carmella Yenkevich and John Alberda (Objectors) appeal from separate orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County which granted the motion of three candidates for local office, Robert Warren, Anthony Kiddish and Edward Wanyo (Candidates), to Quash the Objectors’ Petition to Set Aside their Nomination Petitions for the office of School Director in the Democratic primary, which is to be held on May 20,1997.1

On March 11, 1997, Robert Warren2 filed a Nomination Petition for the office of School Director. The Objectors filed a Petition to Set Aside Warren’s Nomination Petition on March 18, 1997, alleging that (1) Warren did not timely file his Statement of Financial Interest under Section 4(b)(2) of the Public Officials and Employee Ethics Act (Ethics Act),3 and (2) that his Nomination Petition is incomplete because the Title of Office line on the “Affidavit and Loyalty Oath” was left blank.

A hearing was held before the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County on March 21,1997, at which time Warren presented his Motion to Quash the Objectors’ petition. Warren contended that the Objectors’ petition must be quashed because they failed to plead that they are members of the Democratic party, and, therefore, they do not have standing to contest his Nomination Petition.

By order dated March 24, 1997, the Common Pleas Court quashed the Objectors’ Petition to Set Aside Warren’s Nomination Pe[1180]*1180tition because they failed to plead that they “are citizens, registered to vote, and eligible to participate in the election at issue.” This appeal ensued.4

On appeal, the Objectors contend that Common Pleas erred in refusing to allow them to testify at the hearing that they are, in fact, citizens who are registered as Democrats and are otherwise eligible to participate in the upcoming election. The Objectors argue that the defect in their pleading should not have been fatal because they could have established by oral testimony that they had standing to challenge the Nomination Petitions. After a thorough review of the record and relevant case law, we must agree and, therefore, reverse the order of the Common Pleas Court and remand the matter for further disposition on the merits.

We begin by first addressing the threshold motion which Warren has presented to quash the Objectors’ appeal to this Court. Warren argues that we should dismiss this appeal because (1) the Objectors did not reduce the March 24th order of Common Pleas to judgment before filing their notice of appeal and (2) jurisdiction in this matter lies exclusively with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. We reject both arguments.

Contrary to Warren’s assertion, the entry of judgment was not required following the trial court’s order before becoming a final appealable order. This Court has recently held that, pursuant to Pa.R.AP. 301, the only orders which must be reduced to judgment before an appeal may be taken are orders which dispose of issues raised on the basis of a motion for post-trial relief pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. No. 227.1. See Temple University of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education v. City of Philadelphia, — Pa. Cmwlth. -, — A.2d - (No. 898 C.D. 1996, filed April 15, 1997). The order appealed from in the present appeal was not one that disposed of issues raised by a motion for posttrial relief, but was simply an order that granted Warren’s Motion to Quash the Objectors’ Petition to Set Aside. As such, the March 24th order was a final appealable order under Pa. R.A.P. 301. Accordingly, the Objectors did not have to reduce it to judgment before filing their appeal.

The pertinent case law involving our jurisdiction to hear this appeal is found in Egan v. Mele, 535 Pa. 201, 634 A.2d 1074 (1993), In re Elliott, 657 A.2d 132 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995) and In re Mancuso, 657 A.2d 136 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995). In Egan v. Mele, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that a minor was not prohibited under the Constitution, or under any statutes or court rules, from running for or holding the office of district justice. In so holding, the Supreme Court vacated this Court’s order, noting that it has exclusive jurisdiction of appeals involving the right to public office under 42 Pa.C.S. § 722(2), which provides as follows:

The Supreme Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from final orders of the courts of common pleas in the following classes of cases:
(2) The right to public office.

42 Pa.C.S. § 722(2).

In Elliott, this Court concluded that Egan v. Mele was binding upon the facts involved in that ease. In Elliott, an objection was filed to Elliott’s nomination petition for District Attorney of Clarion County because he would not be admitted to practice as an attorney in the Commonwealth for at least two years prior to the date for taking the oath of office, which was required under 16 P.S. § 1401(e). We held that because the objection involved a challenge to the right to hold public office, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had the exclusive jurisdiction to hear the appeal pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 722(2).

In Mancuso, a candidate’s fitness to hold the office of school director was challenged on constitutional grounds because the candidate had been convicted of the first degree felonies of burglary, robbery and aggravated assault. The candidate filed a motion to dismiss the objection because the objector, [1181]*1181being a Democrat, had no standing to challenge the candidate’s Republican nomination petition. Common Pleas granted the candidate’s motion to quash. The objector appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in dismissing his objection. We did not decide the merits of the appeal because we concluded that, pursuant to our decision in Elliott, we did not have jurisdiction.

We may summarize this case law by concluding that this Court has jurisdiction to hear appeals involving issues arising from the election process, while the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear appeals in matters challenging a candidate’s right to hold public office, that is, the basic qualifications of the candidate to hold public office. See Smethport Area School District v. Bowers, 440 Pa. 310, 317, 269 A.2d 712, 716 (1970)(stating that “the right to public office,” as used in 42 Pa.C.S. § 722(2), includes questions of “qualification, eligibility, regularity of the electoral or appointive process and other preconditions to the holding of a particular office.”)

Indeed, the Mancuso decision, while it came to this Court in the same procedural posture as does the present appeal, involved an underlying challenge to the candidate’s basic right to hold public office. Because the Supreme Court had exclusive jurisdiction to hear the underlying objection to the nomination petition on appeal, this Court transferred the entire case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

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Related

Mohn, D. v. Bucks Co. Republican Committee
2019 Pa. Super. 270 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019)
Gordon v. Philadelphia County Democratic Executive Committee
80 A.3d 464 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
In Re Nomination Petition of Rizzo
20 A.3d 546 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
692 A.2d 1178, 1997 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-nomination-petition-of-warren-pacommwct-1997.