James J. Gory Mechanical Contracting, Inc. v. Philadelphia Housing Authority

855 A.2d 669, 579 Pa. 26, 2004 Pa. LEXIS 1927
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 17, 2004
Docket13 E.D. Appeal Docket 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 855 A.2d 669 (James J. Gory Mechanical Contracting, Inc. v. Philadelphia Housing Authority) 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
James J. Gory Mechanical Contracting, Inc. v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, 855 A.2d 669, 579 Pa. 26, 2004 Pa. LEXIS 1927 (Pa. 2004).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Justice NIGRO.

We granted allowance of appeal in the instant case to resolve whether the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (the “Trial Court”) had original jurisdiction over the underlying action brought against the Philadelphia Housing Authority (“PHA”). We hold that the Trial Court did indeed have original jurisdiction over the case and therefore affirm the Superior Court’s finding in that respect.

On February 9, 2000, Appellee James J. Gory Mechanical Contracting, Inc. (“Gory”) filed a complaint against the PHA in the Trial Court, alleging that PHA had breached a construction contract it had entered into with Gory (the “Contract”) by causing delays in Gory’s completion of its work and by failing to pay Gory for all of its work, including the extra days it had to work due to the delays.1 The Trial Court [29]*29subsequently held a bench trial and on July 12, 2001, it entered an order and opinion, finding that PHA had breached the Contract and that Gory was entitled to $141,500.00 in damages. After the Trial Court denied PHA’s post-trial motions, PHA filed an appeal with the Commonwealth Court. On September 19, 2001, however, the Commonwealth Court entered an order stating: “[I]t appearing that this is a breach of contract dispute and as such is not within the jurisdiction of this court, 42 Pa.C.S. § 762, this matter is transferred to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.”2 Commw. Ct. Order, 9/19/2001. Accordingly, on October 9, 2001, the case was transferred to the Superior Court.

On May 2, 2002, the Superior Court entered a memorandum opinion affirming the Trial Court’s order in favor of Gory. In its opinion, the Superior Court initially addressed the first issue raised by PHA in its appeal, which was “ ‘[wjhether the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County had subject matter jurisdiction [over the case]?”3 Super Ct. Op., 5/2/2002, at 2 (citing PHA’s Super. Ct. Brf. at 4). The Superior Court noted that although PHA claimed that it was a state agency and that the Commonwealth Court therefore had original jurisdiction over claims filed against it, this Court had previously found otherwise in T & R Painting Co., Inc. v. Phila. [30]*30Housing Auth., 466 Pa. 493, 353 A.2d 800 (1976). The Superi- or Court pointed out that in T & R Painting Co., this Court had held that PHA was a local agency, rather than a Commonwealth agency, for purposes of jurisdiction, and consequently, the trial court, not the Commonwealth Court, had original jurisdiction over claims filed against it. See Super. Ct. Op., at 2-3 (citing T & R Painting Co., 353 A.2d at 800). Moreover, the Superior Court found that, contrary to PHA’s claims, T & R Painting Co. remained good law. The Superior Court recognized that it had held in Battle v. Phila. Housing Auth., 406 Pa.Super. 578, 594 A.2d 769 (1991), that PHA was a Commonwealth agency for purposes of sovereign immunity, but it stated that because an agency may be a Commonwealth agency for one purpose and not for another, its decision in Battle was consistent with this Court’s decision in T & R Painting Co.4 Accordingly, the Superior Court found that based on this Court’s decision in T & R Painting Co., the Trial Court had properly exercised original jurisdiction over Gory’s claims.5

PHA subsequently filed a petition for allowance of appeal with this Court and we granted allocatur to address PHA’s claim that it is a Commonwealth agency for purposes of jurisdiction based on this Court’s decision in Marshall v. Port Auth. of Allegheny County, 524 Pa. 1, 568 A.2d 931 (1990), and our per curiam order in City of Philadelphia v. Philadelphia Parking Auth., 568 Pa. 430, 798 A.2d 161 (2002). Moreover, we agreed to consider PHA’s tangential claim that if it is a Commonwealth agency for jurisdictional purposes, Gory’s action should have been brought before the Board of Claims, rather than the Commonwealth Court. We now reaffirm our [31]*31decision issued over twenty-eight years ago in T & R Painting Co., 466 Pa. 493, 353 A.2d 800, and thereby hold that PHA is a local agency for purposes of jurisdiction and Gory’s claims were properly brought in' the Trial Court. Given this decision, we also find, contrary to PHA’s claims, that our decision in Marshall and our per curiam order in City of Philadelphia did not implicitly overrule T & R Painting Co. by requiring that PHA be deemed a Commonwealth agency.

Section 761 of the Judicial Code provides that the Commonwealth Court has original jurisdiction over all civil actions brought against the “Commonwealth government” unless one or more of four specific exceptions apply. 42 Pa.C.S. § 761. The “Commonwealth government” is defined for purposes of the Judicial Code as including, among other things, “the departments, boards, commissions, authorities and officers and agencies of the Commonwealth, but the term does not include any political subdivision, municipal or other local authority, or any officer or agency of any such political subdivision or local authority.”6 Id. § 102. Thus, for the Commonwealth Court to have original jurisdiction over a case filed against PHA, PHA must be a Commonwealth agency as opposed to a political subdivision, municipal authority or other such local authority (a “local agency”).7

As the Superior Court pointed out, this Court addressed the very issue of whether PHA is a Commonwealth agency for [32]*32purposes of jurisdiction several years ago in T & R Painting Co. In that case, PHA argued that it was a Commonwealth agency and therefore any civil actions brought against it had to be filed with the Commonwealth Court.8 In support of its claim that it was a Commonwealth agency, PHA relied on Section 1550 of the Housing Authorities Law (the “Housing Law”),9 which defines the powers of housing authorities, such as PHA, and states as follows: “An Authority shall constitute a public body, corporate and politic, exercising public powers of the Commonwealth as an agency thereof .... “ 35 P.S. § 1550 (emphasis added). This Court, however, found that Section 1550 did not conclusively establish that PHA was a Commonwealth agency because it had to be read with the other provisions of the Housing Law and according to those other provisions, PHA was a local agency. See T & R Painting Co., 353 A.2d at 801-02; see also 1 Pa.C.S. § 1922 (it must be presumed that the General Assembly intends to give effect to all of a statute’s provisions). Specifically, we pointed [33]*33to the following eight provisions as evidence that PHA was a local agency:

1.

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Bluebook (online)
855 A.2d 669, 579 Pa. 26, 2004 Pa. LEXIS 1927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-j-gory-mechanical-contracting-inc-v-philadelphia-housing-pa-2004.