Scott v. Palmerton Area School District

439 A.2d 859, 63 Pa. Commw. 528, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1996
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 30, 1981
DocketAppeal, No. 3031 C.D. 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 439 A.2d 859 (Scott v. Palmerton Area School District) 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
Scott v. Palmerton Area School District, 439 A.2d 859, 63 Pa. Commw. 528, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1996 (Pa. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge MacPhail,

Taxpayers (Appellants) living in the Palmerton Area School District (School District) brought a class action suit in equity against the School District requesting, inter alia, that the occupational tax and assessment adopted by the School District be declared unconstitutional. School District filed preliminary objections in the nature of a motion to strike for failure to exercise a statutory remedy and for lack of conformity to rules of court and a petition raising the defense of nonjoinder of a necessary party. The Court of Common Pleas of Carbon County sustained the motion to strike for lack of subject matter jurisdiction for failure to exercise a statutory remedy and overruled the other two objections. This appeal followed.

Prom the allegations in the complaint, we ascertain that on June 30, 1980 the School District adopted a resolution imposing an occupation tax of 35 % on the occupational assessments of each resident in the School District over the age of 18 years. The effective date of the tax was July 1, 1980. Tax bills were sent by the School District on or about August 1,1980. Appellants ’ complaint was filed September 5, 1980. Appellants complained that the Assessment Eating of Trades and Occupations established by the Carbon County Board of Assessment Appeals (Assessment Board) used by the School District to determine the value and assessment of each occupation subject to the [530]*530tax, is discriminatory on the basis of sex1 and in violation of their constitutional rights under the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution2 and a violation of equal protection and due process rights under the Constitution of the United States.3 Appellants assert that the unconstitutionality of the assessments renders the tax resolution itself unconstitutional.

Annexed to the complaint is a statement alleged to have been issued by the board of directors of the School District which, according to Appellants, acknowledges that the occupation tax was “antiquated, out-moded, out-dated, unfair, capricious, biased, prejudiced, discriminatory and arbitrary.” Appellants allege that the knowing and willful adoption of such a tax was a violation of their rights under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §19834

Relying upon this Court’s decisions in Lashe v. Northern York County School District, 52 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 541, 417 A.2d 260 (1980) and Hudson v. Union County, 50 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 378, 413 A.2d 1148 (1980), the learned trial court concluded that inasmuch as Appellants had not alleged that their statutory remedies under Section 701 of The Fourth to Eighth Class County Assessment Law (Assessment Law), Act of May 21, 1943, P.L. 571, as amended, 72 [531]*531P.S. §5453.701 and Section 6 of The Local Tax Enabling Act (Enabling Act), Act of December 31, 1965, P.L. 1257, as amended, 53 P.S. §6906, were inadequate as to them and that the constitutional challenges asserted in their complaint could have been raised before the Assessment Board, the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction in equity.

In both Lashe and Hudson, this court relied upon what our Supreme Court said in Borough of Greentree v. Board of Property Assessments, 459 Pa. 268, 328 A.2d 819 (1974):

We are of the view . .. that the mere fact that a constitutional question is raised as to the validity of a statute does not, without more, vest jurisdiction in a court of equity to adjudicate. The additional element required to confer equitable jurisdiction is either the absence of a statutorily-prescribed remedy or, if such a remedy exists, then a showing of its inadequacy in the circumstances.

Id. at 276, 328 A.2d at 823.

It is certainly true that a later decision of our Supreme Court in Cedarbrook Realty, Inc. v. Nahill, 484 Pa. 441, 399 A.2d 374 (1979) casts a small cloud upon what appeared in Greentree to be a clear statement of the law, but stopped short of overruling Greentree.5

However, as was said in Greentree, even though litigants are still required to follow statutorily-prescribed remedies notwithstanding the fact that a constitutional question may be present, the Court must still determine whether such remedy is adequate so as to preclude equity from taking jurisdiction. Thus, in Greentree and in GedarbrooTc, the Supreme Court upheld equity’s jurisdiction where the constitutional challenge was found to be a “frontal attack” upon the [532]*532validity of the statute. In Cedarbrook, the challenge was on due process grounds where the taxing authority sought to collect past due taxes by sequestering rents without pre-determination hearings. In Greentree the challenge to Section 7 of the Second Class County Assessment Law, Act of June 21, 1939, P.L. 626, as amended, 72 P.S. §5452.7, was under the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the equal protection clause of the Constitution of the United States. In both cases, the Supreme Court held that the statutory remedies were inadequate.

In the instant case, Taxpayers do not allege much less demonstrate that the statutory remedies available to them are inadequate. As we read the complaint, Taxpayers contend that the tax resolution is unconstitutional because the assessments made by the Assessment Board are discriminatory. Thus, it appears that the “frontal attack” here is not upon the tax resolution itself adopted by the School District but upon the assessments which were designed by the Assessment Board. The issue of the validity of the tax resolution clearly could have been resolved by an appeal under Section 6 of the Enabling Act which authorizes the trial court to ‘ ‘ declare invalid all or any portion of the ordinance or of the tax imposed.” In the challenge to the assessments, it must first be determined that the assessments are discriminatory, unjust, unfair, etc. (notwithstanding the so called “admissions” of the School Board). It is the Board of Assessments which could make adjustments upon the proper appeal of persons allegedly affected, but until the Board of Assessments has that opportunity it cannot be assumed from a mere recitation of the assessments that they are discriminatory, etc. As we observed in Hudson, there is the right of a further appeal from the decision of the Board of Assessments to the court of common pleas where the constitutional issues then could have [533]*533been addressed. Section 704 of the Assessment Law, 72 P.S. §5453.704.

Finally, on this issue, we think it is important to note that the problem herein addressed is more than procedural jousting. As Justice Pomeroy noted in Greentree, 459 Pa. at 277, 328 at 823.

At an early date, the General Assembly made it clear that statutorily-prescribed remedies were to be ‘strictly pursued.’ In the Act of March 21, 1806, P.L. 558, 4 Sm. L. 326, §13, 46 P.S.

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Bluebook (online)
439 A.2d 859, 63 Pa. Commw. 528, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1996, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-palmerton-area-school-district-pacommwct-1981.