Opinion ID: 2397006
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Case Management Order

Text: By Order dated August 11, 2004, the Commonwealth Court scheduled a status conference with parties' counsel, which was held on August 19, 2004. The Order noted that: the purpose of the status conference is to set a date for an evidentiary hearing on the various objections.... At the present time, the court expects to conduct simultaneous hearings on the individual signature challenges in not less than five court rooms, before five different judges, located throughout the state. Commonwealth Court Order dated August 11, 2004. (emphasis added). At the conference, Candidates objected to the court's Order directing the use of multiple judges sitting at different locations to hear the challenges, and requested additional time to review the signatures. The Objectors stated that they were ready and available to begin each of the five hearings contemplated by [the August 11, 2004] Order as soon as the court requests such hearings. Objectors' Joint Case Management and Status Conference Statement dated August 18, 2004. The court stated that it had committed four commissioned judges of the court to work on nothing else (presumably signature review) until the matter is concluded. Transcript at 18. Additionally, the court later indicated that it had five judges, and more if needed, to work on the case. Id. at 31. The court denied Candidates' objections on August 19, 2004, stating that time is of the essence in election matters, and reminding counsel for Candidates that the Rules of Professional Conduct require a lawyer to control his work-load so that each matter may be handled adequately. Counsel for Candidates offered to conduct a statistical review of a number of the signatures that were challenged, noting that if patterns of fraud were detected, the Nomination Papers would be withdrawn. [7] The Commonwealth Court issued a Per Curiam Case Management Order (Case Management Order) on August 19, 2004, requiring the parties to commence their review of the Philadelphia Registration Commission records and to schedule arrangements with the Voter Registration Administrator for review of the record. In addition, the Commonwealth Court further ordered that after review of those records, the parties were to enter into a stipulation identifying the number of signatures submitted in the Nomination Papers, the number of signatures being challenged, the page and line numbers for the challenges, and the basis for the challenges or objections. [8] The Commonwealth Court, in a subsequent Order, explained that [w]ith the substantial number of signatures at issue here ... a fair and just resolution of the signature challenges would require the commitment of significant resources by the Candidates with the view of entering into stipulations as to many if not most of the challenged signatures. Commonwealth Court Memorandum and Order dated September 9, 2004, at 5. The Case Management Order also provided that the court would commence oral argument before a three-judge panel of the court on August 27, 2004, and that: [t]he President Judge of the Commonwealth Court shall convene hearings before the Court on Objectors' challenges to the Nomination Papers on Friday, September 3, 2004 and shall continue until said challenges are concluded. Counsel for the parties are to remain available for hearings at all dates and times scheduled by the Court, including evenings and weekends. Case Management Order dated August 19, 2004, at 2. Based on its previous Order of August 11, 2004, the court intended to conduct simultaneous hearings, using the significant resources it identified and would make available to resolve the signature challenges.