Court Opinion

ID: 9635074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:34:59.012446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:17.368897
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
KLEIN, J.:
¶ 1 I believe the plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the so-called “Crown Cork and Seal Act”.1 I further believe that so-called statute is unconstitutional because it is in violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution,2 and it constitutes a denial of equal protection rights.3 I agree with the majority that the statute was not constitutionally flawed in the manner of its enactment.4 Therefore, because I believe that section 1929.1 represents an unconstitutional infringement upon equal protection under the law and further violates the commerce clause, I would hold it unenforceable and therefore respectfully dissent.
¶ 2 I believe that the statute treats similarly situated people differently because people injured by products made by an out-of-state corporation that acquired an asbestos company can recover, but people injured by products made by an in-state corporation that acquired an asbestos company cannot recover. Therefore, the statute violates equal protection.
¶3 Further, I believe that there is a commerce clause violation because there is protection for in-state corporations but not similarly situated out-of-state corporations. While the commerce clause was intended to protect corporations in commerce rather than individuals injured by products, once there is a commerce clause violation, anyone injured by the violation has standing to bring a lawsuit and can recover. I believe a plaintiff deprived of a remedy because of the commerce clause violation should be considered injured by the violation.
Standing
¶ 4 The majority holds that plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits do not have standing to complain about the violation of the commerce clause. I disagree. I believe there are two aspects to consider when determining whether a plaintiff may complain of a violation of a constitutional right. First, that the right was violated. Second, that he or she was adversely affected by constitutional violation. In fact, the majority states this principle in its opinion, saying:
¶ 5 “We begin with general concepts of standing:
*581The core concept in any standing analysis is that a person who is not adversely affected in any way by the matter he seeks to challenge is not ‘aggrieved’ thereby and has no standing to obtain a judicial resolution of his challenge.” Soc’y Hill Civic Ass’n v. Pa. Gaming Control Bd., 593 Pa. 1, 928 A.2d 175, 184 (2007) ...
Majority Opinion at 577.
¶ 6 I start with the premise that the statute violates the commerce clause because it gives an advantage to a Pennsylvania corporation. Crown Cork and Seal and any other hypothetical Pennsylvania corporation that might have acquired an asbestos company do not have to worry about massive tort liability that confronts non-Pennsylvania corporations similarly situated.
¶ 7 The majority says that even if a non-Pennsylvania corporation can complain of the commerce clause violation, a Pennsylvania citizen injured by the product of the corporation to which Crown Cork and Seal is the successor cannot. The majority recognizes that “[cjonsumers and others not directly affected by the regulation may assert dormant Commerce Clause challenges, but only if they establish that they fall within the zone of interests.”
¶8 In Oxford Assocs. v. Waste Sys. Auth., 271 F.3d 140 (3d Cir.2001), consumers of a favored waste facility, as well as competitors, had the right to sue claiming commerce clause violations. The principle is that standing is appropriate “where the underlying controversy is real and concrete, rather than abstract.” City of Philadelphia v. Commonwealth, 575 Pa. 542, 838 A.2d 566, 569 (2003). Here, Johnson and others similarly situated are denied their right to tort damages because of a statute that benefits Pennsylvania corporations and does not benefit out-of-state corporations. These are real, concrete rights that are taken away by a statute giving benefit to only Pennsylvania corporations. The majority claims that this is not a substantial loss because there are still joint tortfeasors against whom plaintiffs might collect. This is putting the cart before the horse as there has not yet been any showing or determination of which companies are responsible to which plaintiffs. It could be that only products that can be identified satisfactorily came from Mundet or from Mundet and one or more companies that have gone through bankruptcy. If this is so, then these Pennsylvania citizens will be unable to collect whatever damages that might rightfully be theirs.
¶ 9 In Annenberg v. Commonwealth I, 562 Pa. 570, 757 A.2d 333 (1998); Annenberg v. Commonwealth II, 562 Pa. 581, 757 A.2d 338 (2000), the “commerce” violation was the discrimination in favor of in-state corporations against out-of-state corporations, as it is here. It was not the corporation that brought the lawsuit but instead the taxpayer that was hurt. That is the situation here — while the purpose of the commerce clause may be to avoid harm to those out-of-state, when an individual citizen is also injured by the violation of the commerce clause, that citizen has the right to bring an action.
¶ 10 This is far different than the situation in the case relied on by the majority, which denied a dormant commerce clause claim to a Pennsylvania resident who complained that the criminal statute prohibiting unlawful contact with a minor might violate the commerce clause if a non-Pennsylvanian carried out the communication from out of state. Commonwealth v. Rose, 2008 PA Super 249, 960 A.2d 149. The reason there was no standing in that case was that Rose was a Pennsylvania resident who was making a claim that a non-Pennsylvania resident might be improperly ens*582nared by the law in question. Thus, Rose’s claim regarding a possibly disadvantaged hypothetical non-Pennsylvanian was simply an abstraction.
¶ 11 As a matter of fundamental fairness, one might note that it seems strange that an unconstitutional act that violates the commerce clause can be challenged by an out-of-state corporation, in this case a possible codefendant, but not an aggrieved Pennsylvania citizen.
¶ 12 I would find that allowing a Pennsylvania corporation to avoid liability for a company it acquired while a non-Pennsylvania corporation cannot avoid such liability gives an unfair advantage to the Pennsylvania corporation and therefore violates the commerce clause. Since the plaintiffs in these cases have real, concrete damages because of the protectionism given to the Pennsylvania corporation, their rights are violated. Thus, I believe these plaintiffs have standing to raise their constitutional claims.
Equal protection
¶ 18 I agree with the general proposition that the Pennsylvania legislature has the right to enact statutes which control the fate of Pennsylvania corporations. What the Pennsylvania legislature cannot do is enact a statute that improperly grants favor to a Pennsylvania corporation while putting foreign corporations at a disadvantage such that the due process rights of a plaintiff are adversely affected.
¶ 14 In Ieropoli v. AC & S. Corp., 577 Pa. 138, 842 A.2d 919 (2004), our Supreme Court held the statute now at issue unconstitutional because it denied the due process rights of individuals whose cause of action had vested prior to the enactment of the law. This is a classic violation of due process. Our Supreme Court left open, however, the question of the constitutionality of the statute as applied to those causes of action that accrued after December 17, 2001 (such as the instant case). That is question is now before us.
¶ 15 The essence of equal protection is simply that persons of a class cannot be denied the protection of the laws that other persons of the same class enjoy. See U.S. Const., Amend. 14; Pa. Const., Art. 1, § 26.
¶ 16 Here, defendants in asbestos litigation are the main class of persons involved. However, § 1929.1 carves out a sub-class of defendants currently consisting of a single Pennsylvania corporation which is subject to the payment of damages through the legal concept of successor liability. One might also find the main class consists of corporations which are subject to the payment of damages through successor liability and the sub-class to be corporations subject to the payment of asbestos damages through successor liability.
¶ 17 In either event, there is no clear showing why a foreign corporation that is subject to the payment of damages for asbestos-related harm through successor liability should be denied a similar protection. In this manner, I believe that WHYY, Inc. v. Borough of Glassboro, 393 U.S. 117, 89 S.Ct. 286, 21 L.Ed.2d 242 (1968), is instructive. In WHYY, the United States Supreme Court found it to be a violation of equal protection for New Jersey to deny a foreign corporation the benefit of certain tax exemptions that were allowed to New Jersey registered nonprofit corporations. The Supreme Court stated:
This Court has consistently held that while a State may impose conditions on the entry of foreign corporations to do business in the State, once it has permitted them to enter, ‘the adopted corporations are entitled to equal protection with the state’s own corporate progency, at least to the extent that their property *583is entitled to an equally favorable ad valorum tax basis.’
Id. at 119, 89 S.Ct. 286 (citations omitted).
¶ 18 While the matter before us is not a tax issue, I can see no reason why the logic of the WHYY decision would not be applicable here. Once the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania allowed corporations that had asbestos liability into the Commonwealth to do business, it must treat those adoptive corporations the same as it treats Pennsylvania corporations. Or, once the Commonwealth allows any corporation which has accepted liability through purchase or merger of another corporation into Pennsylvania, it must offer similar protection to that foreign corporation.5 By allowing this benefit to a Pennsylvania corporation, foreign corporations would have to pay more than their proportional share of damages and would be unable to seek contribution from a protected Pennsylvania corporation.
¶ 19 While it appears that the statute in question treats similar corporations dis-similarly, in violation of equal protection of laws, it is more important under the facts of this case, how that dissimilar treatment affects the rights of plaintiffs.6
¶ 20 Here, the estates of the decedents are forbidden from seeking redress from a source of possible liability simply because that source, a Pennsylvania corporation, acquired the liability through the purchase of another corporation and by dint of the fact that their claims were unknown until after December 17, 1993. Thus, if Thornton Johnson (to use a single decedent as an example) had been exposed to any other asbestos manufacturer or supplier other than Mundet/Crown Cork, he would be entitled to seek full redress from all those responsible. Similarly, if Johnson had known of his illness prior to December 17, 1993 he would also be entitled to seek redress from Mundet/Crown Cork.
¶ 21 If we suppose that Johnson were, in fact, exposed to asbestos from a Mundet product, and if we further suppose that the exposure can be linked to his fatal disease, then the simple fact that the disease may have taken a bit longer to manifest itself in Johnson than in another now prevents Johnson from seeking compensation from a responsible party, possibly the only responsible party. Thus, Johnson has been denied equal protection of the law due to the operation of 15 Pa.C.S. § 1929.1. Not only has equal protection been violated as regarding the Fourteenth Amendment and Article 1, section 26 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, but the application of section 1929.1 also offends equal protection under Article 1, section 11, which provides:
All courts shall be open; and every man for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due course of law, and right *584and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.
Pa. Const., Ait. 1, § 11.
¶ 22 The estate of Thornton Johnson is entitled to seek the full measure of remedy against those who may have caused him harm. Section 1929.1 prevents that from happening by arbitrarily disallowing Johnson to seek a constitutionally guaranteed remedy on the basis of the date he knew of his injury and because the legislature has opted to treat a single Pennsylvania corporation differently from any and every other foreign corporation.
Commerce Clause
¶ 23 I also believe that the Crown Cork and Seal Act violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, Art. 1, cl. 3. As the majority notes, “the dormant Commerce Clause prohibits economic protectionism — that is, regulatory measures designed to benefit in-state economic interests by burdening out-of-state competitors.” Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Marcone, 579 Pa. 1, 855 A.2d 654, 666 (2004). It is hard to dispute that the Crown Cork and Seal Act gives an advantage to those Pennsylvania Corporations that acquired asbestos companies while not giving such protection to out-of-state corporations who made similar acquisitions.
¶ 24 In Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460, 125 S.Ct. 1885, 161 L.Ed.2d 796 (2005), the United States Supreme Court used the dormant commerce clause to strike down provisions in Michigan and New York that allowed in-state but not out-of-state wineries to make direct sales to consumers. In that case, the United States Supreme Court, citing Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Oregon, 511 U.S. 93, 114 S.Ct. 1345, 128 L.Ed.2d 13, (1994), said:
This Court has long held that, in all but the narrowest circumstances, state laws violate the Commerce Clause if they mandate “differential treatment of instate and out-of-state economic interests that benefits the former and burdens the latter.” Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U.S. 93, 99, 114 S.Ct. 1345, 128 L.Ed.2d 13 (1994). Laws such as those at issue contradict the principles underlying this rule by depriving citizens of their right to have access to other States’ markets on equal terms.
544 U.S. at 461, 125 S.Ct. 1885.
¶ 25 In Fulton Corp. v. Faulkner, 516 U.S. 325, 116 S.Ct. 848, 133 L.Ed.2d 796 (1996), the United States Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina “intangibles tax” that taxed the value of corporate stock owned by state residents in inverse proportion to the corporation’s exposure to the state’s income tax, holding it discriminated against interstate commerce.
¶ 26 Following Fulton, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Annenberg I, and An-nenberg II, supra, struck down a provision imposing personal property tax on the value of stock held by out-of-state corporations but not in-state corporations. Here it was the taxpayer that objected to the tax, not one of the corporations that might have been harmed by the tax that impaired commerce.
¶ 27 It seems abundantly clear to me that 15 Pa.C.S.A. § 1929.1 provides the “differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests that benefits the former and burdens the latter” that is constitutionally forbidden.
¶ 28 For these reasons, I would reverse the lower court determination and allow these plaintiffs to pursue their claims. Accordingly, I dissent.

. 15 Pa.C.S.A. § 1929.1

. U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3.

. U.S. Const., Amend. 14; Pa. Const., Art. 1, §§ 11,26.

. Pa. Const., Art. 3, §§ 1,3.

. I am aware that the WHYY decision has been distinguished by Feniello v. University of Pennsylvania Hospital, 558 F.Supp. 1365 (D.C.N.J.1983), which stated, regarding WHYY: "There is no indication in the opinion that the same ruling would apply to the state’s power to grant a corporation limited immunity from tort liability.” I believe Feniello is inapplicable for a number of reasons. First, this is merely dicta from the federal district court and is not binding upon us. Second, and most importantly, in Feniello, the hospital did no business in New Jersey yet sought the protection of New Jersey charitable laws, the denial of which was not unconstitutional. Here, all other defendants are doing business in Pennsylvania, thus would be subject to Pennsylvania law.

. The dissimilar treatment of corporations may not be properly before us because no other defendant corporation has complained of unequal protection. However, the analysis is still important because of the way the dissimilar treatment of corporations’ impacts upon the treatment of plaintiffs. Thus, we do not believe this analysis is uncalled for dicta.