Court Opinion

ID: 9706705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:50:03.125932+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:24.588246
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
In Armstrong School District v. Armstrong Education Association, 528 Pa. 170, 595 A.2d 1139 (1991), I dissented because the Court’s view of the authority of a court under section 1003 of the Public Employee Relations Act, 43 P.S. § 1101.1003, was too expansive. Little did I realize how expansive that view really was. Today, the majority dispenses with statutory language and procedural rules altogether and effectively gives the common pleas court a roving commission to simply “do justice” as the court sees fit.
Section 1003 of PERA provides that where a strike by public employees creates a danger to the public health, safety or welfare, the employer shall initiate “an action for equitable relief including but not limited to appropriate injunctions.” After Armstrong was decided, Act 88 significantly altered the bargaining process and the employees’ right to strike in the public education context by providing for mandatory, non*207binding arbitration. It also interposed the School Code’s requirement of 180 days of instruction as a limiting factor, independent of the interests of employer and employees, placing the responsibility for its enforcement on the Secretary of Education. The legislature gave the Secretary of Education a specific means, injunction, of protecting a specific interest, 180 days of instruction. The majority opinion fails to acknowledge the importance of this change and proceeds as if any court action involving school districts and teachers is an adequate vehicle for the court to exercise the broadest of equitable powers.
Even if section 11-1161-A of the School Code and section 1003 of PERA are not so “clearly inconsistent” that the former can be held to repeal the latter with respect to public school teachers, and even if PERA section 1003 is to be read in pari materia with School Code section 11-1161-A, it does not follow that in an action brought by the Secretary pursuant to School Code section 11-1161-A the court has the same broad power it would have if an action were brought by the district pursuant to PERA section 1003. An action by the Secretary has one purpose: to provide for the required period of instruction. To decide such a case it is wholly unnecessary for the court to delve into the causes of the deficiency. According to the majority, however, since the school board could have brought an action and the same type of relief could have been obtained, we might as well treat this action as if the school board had brought it. But cf. Masloff v. Port Authority of Allegheny County, 531 Pa. 416, 613 A.2d 1186 (1992) (binding arbitration provision of Second Class County Port Authority Act, applicable where employer obtained injunction to prohibit strike, was inapplicable where third party vindicating different interests, sought and obtained injunction).
At least in Armstrong the action had been brought by the school district, so there was some rough symmetry in the application of the equitable maxim, “He who seeks equity must do equity.” Having sought the aid of the court in obtaining an injunction, the district was also subject to the court’s jurisdiction to make the relief complete. In this case, *208however, the action was brought by the Secretary of Education. The school district and the union were both defendants. The aforementioned maxim plainly does not apply as against the district here because the district did not invoke the equitable power of the court.
Procedurally, the union’s “Motion for Court Ordered Bargaining,” directed against the district, was a separate and distinct action against a co-defendant that should have been raised by way of new matter pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 2252(d). It was not properly the subject of a motion. The majority attempts to sweep this untidy distinction under the rug, concluding in footnote 12 that “the Chancellor had authority to order court-monitored bargaining pursuant to Armstrong regardless of any motion by the Association for such an order.” This is a most remarkable conclusion. It means nothing less than that because one consequence of a labor dispute was before the court in some form, the court had power to insinuate itself into all aspects of that dispute.
In Pennsylvania, from the earliest days it has been the rule that a court may exercise only those equitable powers that have been specifically conferred by the legislature. See Commonwealth v. Ryan, 459 Pa. 148, 327 A.2d 351 (1974); Calabrese v. Collier Township Municipal Authority, 430 Pa. 289, 240 A.2d 544 (1968); Penn Anthracite Mining Company v. Anthracite Miners of Pennsylvania, 318 Pa. 401, 178 A. 291 (1935). Peculiarly, when it comes to labor disputes in the field of public education the majority abandons this rule and subjects everyone and everything to the “conscience of the court.” Respectfully, I dissent.
CASTILLE, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.