Court Opinion

ID: 9712521
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:55:21.85473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:12.686978
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
dissenting:
Rule 2103 provides (-with exceptions not here relevant) that “an action against a political subdivision may be brought only in the county in which the political subdivision is located.” From this it would seem that the Borough of Lansdale could only be sued in Montgomery County. But Rule 1006(b) makes Rule 2103 subordinate to Rule 1006(c); and Rule 1006(c) provides that all defendants may be sued where any defendant may be, so that the Borough of Lansdale could be sued in Philadelphia County “except [when] the Commonwealth is a party defendant.” Here, of course, the Commonwealth is a party defendant. But on the facts here, that doesn’t matter. The Commonwealth could already be sued in Philadelphia, since the Department of Transportation had an office there. It seems to me that the “except” clause in Rule 1006(c) is intended to protect the Commonwealth from suit only in a county-in which it could not, but for Rule 1006(c), be sued. See United States Cold Storage v. Philadelphia, 427 Pa. 624, 235 A.2d 422, after remand, 431 Pa. 411, 246 A.2d 386 (1968) (Philadelphia and several other defendants could be sued in Dauphin County because General State Authority was a defendant and could only be sued there).
If the Borough of Lansdale had pleaded forum non conveniens, the case would be different. But it did not.
I should reverse.