Court Opinion

ID: 9747817
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:37:14.559538+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:27.468558
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Roberts:
I dissent from the Court’s conclusion that §§16 and 16.1 of The Third Class City Code make the city solicitor and assistant city solicitors of third class cities removable at the pleasure of the body appointing them. My dissenting opinion in Schluraff v. Rzymek, 417 Pa. 144, 147-52, 208 A. 2d 239, 240-43 (1965), a case involving a question of statutory interpretation closely analogous to this one, contains most of the reasons for my dissent here. I would add, however, that the instant statutes’ specification of the day on which the terms of the city solicitors and assistant city solicitors begin,* when coupled with the specified length of the *603term, makes me even more certain that I was in Schluraff that the Legislature did not intend such officers to he removable at the pleasure of the body appointing them.

 Act of June 23, 1931, P. L. 932, §§1601, 1610, as amended, Act of June 28, 1951, P. L. 662, §§16, 16.1, 53 P.S. §§36601, 36609:
“The council of each city shall, on the first Monday of May, one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two, and on the first Monday of May every fourth year thereafter, or as soon thereafter as practicable in each of said years, appoint a city solicitor, who shall be learned in the law and admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth, and shall maintain an office in the *603city. He shall serve for a term of four years from the said first Monday of May and until his successor is qualified. He shall receive a fixed annual salary to be provided by ordinance. He shall give lawful bond to the city, with a surety or other company authorized by law to act as surety, to be approved by council, in such sum as they shall by ordinance direct, conditioned for the faithful performance of his official duties. Vacancies in said office shall be filled by council for the unexpired term.
“The council of each city may appoint one or more assistant city solicitors, whose term of office shall be concurrent with that of the city solicitor, and whose compensation shall be fixed by resolution, and who shall assist the solicitor in the performance of all duties prescribed for him.”