Court Opinion

ID: 9635355
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:48:03.992538+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:08.658743
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent.
The Commonwealth Court was manifestly correct in holding that appellee Department of Transportation had the requisite statutory authority to implement the inspection system required by the terms of the consent decree into which appellee validly entered. See Burd v. Department of Transportation, 66 Pa.Cmwlth. 129, 133-135, 443 A.2d 1197, 1199-1200 (1982). It is unnecessary to address the effect of the initial version of 75 Pa.C.S. § 4706 (71 P.S. § 523), which prohibited the expenditure of public funds “for the establishment and administration of any system for the periodic inspection of emissions or emission system of motor vehicles.” Not only was that statute enacted after the entry of the consent decree, but it has since been amended to authorize appellee’s expenditure of funds on an inspection system which is certified as being required by federal law and necessary to the Commonwealth’s receipt of federal funds, 75 Pa.C.S. § 4706(b), clearly the circumstance of this case. Accordingly, the order of the Commonwealth Court, which denied appellants’ motions for summary judgment, should be affirmed.