Court Opinion

ID: 9638998
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:01:06.415693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:11.323102
License: Public Domain

BARBIERI, Senior Judge,
dissenting.
Most respectfully, I must dissent since I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of the legislation concerning procedures on applications for Certificates of Need. Section 703(a) of the Act, 35 P.S. § 448.703(a) I believe clearly defines who may be a “party” and the status of a party with standing to appeal. Such “party” status with standing to appeal is limited to those “directly affected” persons, who achieve party status under the statutory provision by filing objections setting forth the reasons for such objections, within fifteen days after the required publication of the CON application. The obvious reason for this view, as I see it, contrary to the majority, is that the request for a hearing is inadequate to provide the basis for a party type litigation because the Department, absent specifications of objections, is without any idea as to what issues it may be called upon to approve or reject, or even how to prepare for such a hearing. The objections required to be filed within fifteen days are for the purpose of giving the Department an opportunity to make a judgment on the validity of the objections, or to prepare to meet them during the proposed hearing. To file the objections after the hearing is certainly not the intention of the Legislature, since this puts the Department at a critical disadvantage in the proposed hearing. I would suspect that there is no such proceeding in which an applicant for a hearing, in order to have the *643standing of a party, need not present some averments as to issues it would have come before the hearing authorities.
My conclusion is that the majority would open party status to a much broader range of persons and entities than was intended by the Legislature.
Accordingly, I cannot believe that the Legislature intended that all persons who attended and commented at a public hearing should enjoy party status to appeal. Any person can attend such a public hearing, which is essentially an informational gathering meeting, and present testimony. In passing, I note that in the brief of Intervener it is stated that at the time of the hearing, IFIDA offered no specific objection to the CON project under review by the Department.
Since, in my view, IFIDA failed to achieve party status, I would affirm the order of the State Health Facility Hearing Board.