Court Opinion

ID: 9696215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:41:12.812766+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:19.680545
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CAPPY,
dissenting.
In my view, the majority decides this appeal on issues that the appellant, United Parcel Service, Inc. (“UPS”), did not raise, and grants UPS relief that UPS did not request. I must, therefore, respectfully dissent.
This appeal arises out of the Application to Enforce Unappealed Final Decision (“Application to Enforce”) that UPS filed in the Commonwealth Court. In the Application to Enforce, UPS asserted that the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (“PUC”) failed to comply with the Commonwealth *318Court’s prior order in United Parcel Service, Inc. v. PUC, 789 A.2d 353 (Pa.Cmwlth.2001) (“UPS I”), in re-calculating UPS’ expense assessments. The Commonwealth Court, however, rejected UPS’ assertion, and concluded in its memorandum and order dated April 3, 2002 (“UPS II”), that the PUC followed its order in UPS I to the letter. That is, the Commonwealth Court held that the PUC utilized the group of Common Carriers once and did not divide its total indirect expenses into four subcategories when recalculating UPS’ assessments, as it had been ordered to do in UPS I.1 It is this ruling, in UPS II, and no other, that is currently before us.
According to the majority, this case must be remanded to the Commonwealth Court “since the Commonwealth Court’s central reasoning supporting its disposition in the enforcement phase of the proceedings was invalid. Thus, it committed both errors of law and an abuse of discretion (since discretion cannot be properly invoked in an unreasoned framework).” (Majority Opinion at 305, 830 A.2d at 948). I cannot agree. In its memorandum opinion, the Commonwealth Court explained what it meant in the order it issued in UPS I; explained why it concluded that the PUC complied with that order; and explained how the PUC did not repeat the errors in recalculating UPS’ assessments that had led to that order in the first place. Whether this court agrees with the Commonwealth Court or not, I am at a loss to understand the majority’s characterization of the Commonwealth Court’s decision as “invalid” and “unreasoned” or to discern what more the majority is directing the Commonwealth Court to do on remand when it re-evaluates its ruling.
In its opinion, the majority focuses on the ambiguities and references to the Common Carrier grouping that, as the *319majority points out, appear throughout the Commonwealth Court’s opinion and order in UPS I. This is because those ambiguities and references are what led to the PIJC’s manner of recalculation and are what caused UPS not to receive a refund.
I can, however, find no authority for the majority’s willingness to reach back and discuss questions that arise out of the language the Commonwealth Court used in UPS I. Nor can I find any support for the majority’s apparent decision to have the Commonwealth Court re-visit its opinion and order in UPS I on remand. In its Application to Enforce, UPS did not urge the Commonwealth Court to reconsider or modify the language that appears in either the opinion or order in UPS I. All that UPS asked the Commonwealth Court to do was to enforce that order as written.2
Therefore, in the present appeal, it is the majority, not UPS, that raises these matters. In doing so, the majority ignores Pa.R.A.P. 302 which states that “[ijssues not raised in the lower court are waived and cannot be raised for the first time on appeal!,]” and violates a cardinal rule of appellate jurisprudence, and one which this court has repeatedly upheld — namely, that an appellate court will refrain from raising issues sua sponte. See Danville Area School District v. Danville Area Educ. Ass’n, 562 Pa. 238, 754 A.2d 1255, 1259 (2000).
Accordingly, I would affirm the Commonwealth Court’s order that denied UPS’ Application to Enforce.
Justice NEWMAN joins this dissenting opinion.

. The Commonwealth Court entered the following order in UPS I:
Because the PUC misinterpreted Section 510(b) of the Code and, therefore, miscalculated UPS’ assessments as well as those of all other utilities furnishing the same kind of service, the case is remanded to the PUC for a recalculation of UPS’ assessments. The calculations are to be based on the PUC's balance of expenditures only utilizing the group of Common Carriers once and not dividing its total indirect expenses into four subcategories.
Id. at 359-60 (footnote omitted) (emphasis added).

. In support of the relief it gives to UPS, the majority opinion states that UPS as the “prevailing party” in UPS I was precluded under Pa.R.A.P. 501 from filing an appeal from the order entered therein. (Majority Opinion at 315, 830 A.2d at 948). Assuming for argument's sake that UPS would not have been authorized to appeal from that order based on the assertion that the order as written aggrieved it and harmed its interests, my disagreement with the majority remains. UPS could have raised the questions the majority raises about the Commonwealth Court’s opinion and order in UPS I in its Application to Enforce. UPS, however, did not do so.