Court Opinion

ID: 9758889
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:54:50.837873+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:01:29.386369
License: Public Domain

CAPPY, Justice,

concurring.

I concur in the result reached by the majority. Both the trial court and the Commonwealth Court held that Cheltenham Township is barred from the collection of its Business Privilege Tax because the Township failed to comply with its own Tax Ordinance. Section 3 of the Township’s Business Privilege Tax Ordinance provides in relevant part:
If any taxpayer or supposed taxpayer shall neglect or refuse to make any return and payment of tax required by this Article, or if, as a result of an investigation by the Collector, a return is found to be incorrect, the Collector shall estimate the tax due by such person and determine the amount due for taxes, penalties and interest thereon.
Cheltenham Township Ordinance No. 1400, Article IX, Section 3. The trial court found that in this case, Section 3 required the Collector to estimate the amount due for taxes, penalties and interest thereon as a condition precedent to the Township instituting an action to collect unpaid taxes. Township of Cheltenham v. Cheltenham Cinema, Inc., No. 84-11815, Court of Common Pleas, Civil Division, Montgomery County, slip op. at 14-15 (Jan. 27, 1995). Accordingly, because the Township failed to comply with its mandatory statutory duty, it was barred from collecting the back taxes allegedly due. The Commonwealth Court adopted the opinion of the trial court. Cheltenham Township v. Cheltenham Cinema, Inc., 661 A.2d 23, 25 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995). The Township petitioned for allow*391anee of appeal, arguing that the Commonwealth Court erred in: 1) finding that the Local Tax Enabling Act (“LTEA”), 53 P.S. § 6902(10), preempted the Township’s Business Privilege Tax as applied to Cheltenham Cinema’s ticket revenues; 2) deciding this case contrary to another case decided by the Commonwealth Court in an opinion which was not published; and 3) holding that the Township was barred from collecting the Business Privilege Tax because it failed to comply with the prerequisites of its own Tax Ordinance. This court granted the Township’s petition but limited solely to the first issue, i.e., whether the LTEA preempted the application of the Township’s Business Privilege Tax to the revenues generated from the sale of theater tickets.
Accordingly, by this court’s own choice, the only issue properly before us is the LTEA preemption issue. But, as the majority’s opinion demonstrates, this court’s decision regarding that issue has no bearing on the ultimate decision of this case. Notwithstanding the fact that the majority disagrees with the rationale of the lower courts regarding the LTEA’s preemptive effects, the majority nevertheless must affirm the decision of the lower courts because of the lower courts’ disposition of other issues which are sufficient to support the outcome of this case and which are not before this court given the limited grant of allocatur.
I find this state of affairs to be jurisprudentially troubling. Indeed, a judicial “ruling” that is not necessary to the decision of a case amounts to nothing more than mere obiter dictum. Sproul v. Gambone, 34 F.Supp. 441 (W.D.Pa.1940); see also In re Estate of Cassell, 334 Pa. 381, 6 A.2d 60 (1939). As this court reviews judgments or orders and not the reasons advanced by the lower courts in support of their judgments, Millili v. Alan Wood Steel Co., 418 Pa. 154, 209 A.2d 817, (1965), and as the judgments of the lower courts are correct based upon the failure of the Township to comply with its own ordinance as the majority apparently concedes, see Majority op. at 259 n. 3, it is unnecessary to the decision of this case to reach the issue of the preemptive effect of the LTEA. As the ruling of the majority is not necessary to the decision of this *392case, I consider it mere obiter dicta, and as such, I cannot join.1 Therefore, I am constrained to concur in the result only.
FLAHERTY, C.J., joins this concurring opinion.

. As the Supreme Court noted with approval
I am extremely reluctant to decide anything except what is necessary for the special case, because I believe by long experience that judgments come with far more weight and gravity when they come upon points which the Judges are bound to decide, and I believe that obiter dicta, like the proverbial chickens of destiny, come home to roost sooner or later in a very uncomfortable way to the Judges who have uttered them, and are a great source of embarrassment in future cases.
Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 214 n. 38, 70 S.Ct. 587, 595 n. 38, 94 L.Ed. 761 (1950).