United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, Inc. v. Department of Banking

991 A.2d 370, 2010 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 80, 2010 WL 653756
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided February 25, 2010·No. 69 M.D. 2009·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

OPINION BY

Judge COHN JUBELIRER.

Before this Court is the Application for Summary Relief (Application) of the United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, Inc. (USOBA). In its Application, USOBA asks this Court to “enter judgment in its favor, and declare all sections of Act 117[1] pertaining to [debt set[372] tlement services2] Providers [ (DSS Providers) ] unconstitutional.” (Application at 4.) For the following reasons, we grant, in part, and deny, in part, USOBA’s Application.

This case was initiated by USO-BA’s Amended Petition for Review (Petition), in which USOBA challenged the constitutionality of the Debt Management Services Act (Act 117), which grants the Department of Banking (Department) broad powers to regulate both DSS Providers and providers of debt management services3 (DMS Providers), on a number of grounds.4 In a prior decision in this matter, United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, Inc. v. Department of Banking, No. 69 M.D. 2009 (Pa. Cmwlth. July 24, 2009) (USOBA I), this Court denied the Application for Summary Relief filed by the Department and Secretary of the Department, Steven Kaplan (Secretary) (together with Department, Respondents). In their Application for Summary Relief, Respondents had asked this Court to dismiss USOBA’s Petition for failure to state a claim. This Court declined, citing Association of Settlement Companies v. Department of Banking, 977 A.2d 1257, 1268 (Pa.Cmwlth.2009) (en banc), which held that Act 117’s delegation of power to the Department to regulate DSS Providers was, on its face, a stan-dardless delegation.5 USOBA now asks this Court for summary judgment declaring all provisions of Act 117 relating to DSS Providers unconstitutional.6

USOBA argues that because this Court, in Association of Settlement Companies, held that Act 117 grants a standardless [373] delegation of authority to the Department with respect to DSS Providers, this Court should, therefore, declare Act 117 unconstitutional with respect to DSS Providers. The Respondents, in turn, argue that this matter is not yet ripe for adjudication because the Department has not yet promulgated regulations pursuant to Act 117. Respondents also argue that judgment in this case is premature because there are remaining questions of fact at issue. Finally, Respondents argue that Act 117 is not a standardless delegation of authority with respect to the regulation of DSS Providers.

We first address Respondents’ argument that the question of whether Act 117 is a standardless delegation of authority is not ripe for adjudication because the Department has not yet promulgated regulations. In making this argument, Respondents rely primarily upon American Council of Life Insurance v. Foster, 134 Pa.Cmwlth. 684, 580 A.2d 448 (1990), in which this Court stated “[i]n cases involving challenges to administrative regulations, an actual controversy ripe for judicial determination, has existed only where the regulation was in effect or had been formally promulgated.” Id. at 451 (emphasis added). We believe Foster is distinguishable from the current case. In Foster, the American Council of Life Insurance asked this Court to enjoin the Insurance Commissioner from promulgating certain regulations on the ground that she lacked the authority to promulgate these regulations. Id. at 449. In this case, however, USOBA is not challenging regulations the Department might promulgate in the future, but is making a facial constitutional challenge to Act 117 itself.

The present case is similar to Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania v. Driscoll, 343 Pa. 109, 21 A.2d 912 (1941). In Driscoll, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the challenging telephone company did not have to violate a statute requiring that utilities not enter into certain types of contracts without the approval of the Public Utility Commission before it could challenge the validity of that statute. Id. at 111-12, 21 A.2d at 913-14. In that case the Supreme Court held that it would be “grossly unfair to require the corporation and its officers to risk [imprisonment and fines] in order to test the constitutionality” of the challenged statute. Id. at 112, 21 A.2d at 914. Here, Section 3(b) of Act 117, 63 P.S. § 2403(b), prohibits DSS Providers from providing or advertising debt settlement services unless it is licensed by the Department and acting in compliance with the Department’s regulations. Section 16 of Act 117, 63 P.S. § 2416, provides that each violation of Act 117 is punishable by a $10,000 civil fine and may constitute a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.7 Similarly to Driscoll, USOBA’s members should not have to subject themselves to these penalties before they may challenge the facial constitutionality of Act 117.8 As such, this matter is ripe for adjudication.

We next address Respondents’ argument that USOBA is not entitled to [374] judgment as a matter of law because factual issues remain in dispute. The issues raised in the Application are based on the constitutionality of Act 117 on its face. Statutory interpretation is a question of law, Mohamed v. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, 973 A.2d 453, 454 n. 2 (Pa.Cmwlth.) (en banc), appeal granted, 603 Pa. 136, 982 A.2d 1218 (2009), and, thus, we do not believe any further factual developments are necessary to dispose of USOBA’s Application.9 Moreover, we note that, in making this argument, Respondents do not direct our attention to any relevant fact in dispute.

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United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, Inc. v. Department of Banking, 991 A.2d 370, 2010 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 80, 2010 WL 653756 (Pa. Ct. App. 2010).

991 A.2d 370 (United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, Inc. v. Department of Banking) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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