Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

592 A.2d 797, 140 Pa. Commw. 270, 1991 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 318
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 3, 1991
Docket1708 C.D. 1990 and 1721 C.D. 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 592 A.2d 797 (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority v. Pennsylvania Public Utility 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
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 592 A.2d 797, 140 Pa. Commw. 270, 1991 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 318 (Pa. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

PELLEGRINI, Judge.

This is a consolidated appeal from an order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), finding that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and the City of Philadelphia (City) have certain maintenance responsibilities for the Woodland Avenue Bridge (Bridge), which is part of a separated rail-highway crossing. The Bridge carries Woodland Avenue, a City street, and SEPTA’s facilities over and above two sets of SEPTA’s electrified railroad tracks which are part of its Media/West Chester commuter rail line.

*275 In 1987, the PUC, prompted by other bridge maintenance investigations 1 which revealed that no one was maintaining the Bridge, commenced an investigation to determine ownership of the Bridge and to appoint maintenance responsibilities. To address the Bridge’s immediate maintenance needs, the PUC issued an interim order directing SEPTA to assume maintenance responsibilities for the substructure and superstructure and the City to assume maintenance responsibilities for the entire bituminous wearing surface of the Bridge.

After hearings to determine final maintenance responsibilities, an Administrative Law Judge (AU) determined that SEPTA was the owner of the Bridge. Finalizing the terms set forth in the interim order, the AU, in his Recommended Decision, assigned permanent maintenance responsibilities for the Bridge’s substructure and superstructure, as well as for the trolley facilities on the Bridge, to SEPTA. He also recommended that the City should be assigned permanent maintenance responsibilities for the entire bituminous wearing surface and curbs, sidewalks and protective railings on the Bridge and its approaches, as well as ice, snow and debris removal. Both SEPTA and the City filed timely exceptions to the AU’s Recommended Decision.

Rejecting both SEPTA’s and the City’s claim that the assignment of maintenance responsibilities was incorrect, the PUC adopted the AU’s Recommended Decision with minor technical modifications. Both SEPTA and the City filed Petitions for Review with this Court, seeking review of the PUC’s order. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, *276 Department of Transportation (PennDot) intervened in both Petitions, and the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) and the City intervened in. SEPTA’s. The two Petitions were consolidated by order of this Court.

Our scope of review in PUC cases is limited to a determination of whether constitutional rights have been violated, an error of law has been committed, or the PUC’s findings and conclusions are or are not supported by substantial evidence. Vacation Charters, Ltd. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 133 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 179, 575 A.2d 640 (1990).

The PUC is granted the power to regulate railroad-highway crossings 2 pursuant to Sections 2702 and 2704 of the Public Utility Code (Code), 66 Pa.C.S. §§ 2702, 2704. 3 The rationale underlying the Commonwealth’s entrustment of broad powers to the PUC to exercise the Commonwealth’s police power with respect to railroad-highway crossings is to prevent railroad-highway crossings from becoming unsafe for the public. See, e.g., Pittsburgh Railways Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 198 Pa.Superior Ct. 415, 424, 182 A.2d 80, 84 (1962); Tarentum Borough v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commis *277 sion, 171 Pa.Superior Ct. 156, 160-61, 90 A.2d 853, 855 (1952).

Section 2702 of the Code provides in pertinent part:

(b) Acquisition of property and regulation of crossing. — The [PUC] is hereby vested with exclusive power to appropriate property for any [rail-highway] crossing, ... and to determine and prescribe, by regulation or order, the points at which, and the manner in which, such crossing may be constructed, altered, relocated, suspended or abolished, and the manner and conditions in or under which such crossings shall be maintained, operated, and protected to effectuate the prevention of accidents and the promotion of the safety of the public.

Furthermore, the General Assembly has vested in the PUC the power to allocate the cost of maintaining a railroad-highway crossing in a proper and safe condition among all parties concerned with the crossing. 66 Pa.C.S. § 2704. Section 2704 provides in pertinent part:

(a) General rule. — [T]he cost of construction, relocation, alteration, protection, or abolition of such crossing, and of facilities at or adjacent to such crossing which are used in any kind of public utility service, shall be borne and paid, as provided in this section, by the public utilities or municipal corporations concerned, or by the Commonwealth, in such proper proportions as the [PUC] may, after due notice and hearing, determine, unless such proportions are mutually agreed upon and paid by the interested parties.

I.

SEPTA’S APPEAL

Proportioning the maintenance responsibilities as to each of the parties as authorized by the Code, the PUC assigned permanent maintenance responsibilities to SEPTA for the substructure and superstructure of the Bridge because:

*’ the Bridge is owned by SEPTA;
*278 *’ it was originally built by SEPTA’s predecessor in title for the construction of the rail line beneath the Bridge which now carries SEPTA’s commuter rail lines;
*’ SEPTA trolley facilities occupy the Bridge.

SEPTA challenges the PUC’s assignment of maintenance responsibilities because it believes that the PUC incorrectly applied the Code to impose those maintenance responsibilities, and even if it correctly applied the Code, SEPTA claims it is exempt from being assigned those maintenance responsibilities under both federal and state law.

A.

Insofar as the assignment by the PUC to SEPTA of certain continuing maintenance responsibilities for the Bridge, both because SEPTA owns the Bridge and the Bridge carries the highway over its commuter rail line, 4 SEPTA contends that the PUC is foreclosed from assigning it those responsibilities under 45 U.S.C. § 581(c)(5). That provision exempts certain commuter rail authorities, such as SEPTA, from “taxes and other fees” relating to the operation of commuter rail lines to the same extent as National Rail Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) is exempt.

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Bluebook (online)
592 A.2d 797, 140 Pa. Commw. 270, 1991 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southeastern-pennsylvania-transportation-authority-v-pennsylvania-public-pacommwct-1991.