Community College of Beaver County v. Community College of Beaver County, Soc. of the Faculty (PSEA/NEA)

• Decision Date: 08 July 1977
• Citation: 473 Pa. 576,375 A.2d 1267
• Parties: , 96 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2375 COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF BEAVER COUNTY v. COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF BEAVER COUNTY, SOCIETY OF THE FACULTY (PSEA/NEA), Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1267

375 A.2d 1267

473 Pa. 576, 96 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2375

COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF BEAVER COUNTY v. COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF BEAVER COUNTY, SOCIETY OF THE FACULTY (PSEA/NEA), Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Sept. 21, 1976.

Decided July 8, 1977.

[473 Pa. 580] John R. DeAngelis, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

James S. Ruffner, Craig & Ruffner, Aliquippa, Thomas H. M. Hough, Lucchino, Gaitens & Hough, Pittsburgh, for appellee.

Lewis F. Adler, J. R. Colton, Harrisburg, for amicus curiae.

Thomas H. Lane, John D. Thrush, Sp. Counsel for Com. of Pa., Harrisburg, for intervenor appellee.

Before JONES, C. J., and EAGEN, O'BRIEN, ROBERTS, POMEROY and MANDERINO, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

POMEROY, Justice.

We granted allowance of appeal in this case to consider two questions of public employee labor law to which we adverted but left unresolved in an earlier opinion. ¹ First, does the Arbitration Act of 1927, 5 P.S. §§ 161-181, apply to arbitrations conducted pursuant to collective bargaining agreements governed by the Public Employee Relations Act of 1970 ("PERA"), Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, No. 195, Art. I, § 101 et seq., 43 P.S. §§ 1101.101-1101.2301 (Supp.1976-77); and second, if so, what is the standard of judicial review applicable where the arbitrator's award is based on an interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement? ²

It is unnecessary at this point to give the particulars of the dispute giving rise to this appeal. Suffice it to say that pursuant to a retrenchment program, the appellee-College discharged two full-time faculty members; the propriety of this action is not here questioned. Later, the College created certain part-time positions, to which new employees were appointed. The sole issue in arbitration was whether under the collective bargaining agreement the two retrenched teachers had employment rights with respect to the part-time positions. The arbitrator held that they did; the Commonwealth Court disagreed, and set aside the award. Community College of Beaver County v. Community College of Beaver County (Society of the Faculty PSEA/NEA), 17 Pa.Cmwlth. 231, 331 A.2d 921 (1975). This appeal followed.

I.

At the threshold of this case we are met with a procedural question involving jurisdiction to review arbitration awards in public employment situations. The question is whether a challenge to the arbitrator's award by the aggrieved party (here the employer-College) should be made in the court of common pleas or in the Commonwealth Court.

At the time of the arbitrator's award in this case (April, 1974) access to judicial review of the award could be sought through either of two inconsistent avenues. One, section 13 of the Arbitration Act of 1927, 5 P.S. § 173, provided generally that within three months after the filing of the arbitrator's award a motion to vacate, modify or "Review of Arbitration Awards in Public Employment Disputes.

correct the award could be filed in a court of common pleas. ³ The second approach was afforded[473 Pa. 582] by a Rule of Judicial Administration, Pa.R.J.A. 2101 (since superseded), which provided:

(a) Review of an award of arbitrators appointed in conformity with an Act of Assembly to arbitrate a dispute between a public employer and employe shall be sought exclusively in the Commonwealth Court. The application for review shall be filed within thirty (30) days after the date of the award of the arbitrators."

The Commonwealth Court held that Pa.R.J.A. 2101 was applicable to contract interpretation arbitrations pursuant to PERA collective bargaining agreements and that the rule, which we had adopted in May, 1973 without explanatory comment, took precedence over the contrary procedure set forth as section 13 of the Arbitration Act of 1927. 17 Pa.Cmwlth. 231, 331 A.2d 921 (1975). We think it was correct in so holding.

It is urged upon us by the Community College ⁴ and by the Commonwealth, as intervenor, who seek to assure what they consider to be the broader scope of review obtainable under the Act of 1927, that Pa.R.J.A. 2101 should be taken as applying only to what are termed "interest" arbitrations such as arise under Act No. 111, 43 P.S. § 217.1 et seq. (Supp.1976-77) (collective bargaining between police and fire units and their public employers), and not to arbitrations involving interpretation of PERA collective bargaining agreements. Thus they argue that the court of common pleas was the proper forum in which to seek review of the instant award.

We note that since the date of the Commonwealth Court's decision in this case Pa.R.J.A. 2101 has been superseded by Rule 703 of our new Rules of Appellate Procedure and by Rule 247 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 703 provides:

"Arbitration Awards in Public Employment Disputes

A petition for review of an award of arbitrators appointed in conformity with statute to arbitrate a dispute between the Commonwealth and an employee of the Commonwealth shall be filed in the Commonwealth Court. The petition for review shall be subject to Chapter 15 (judicial review of governmental determinations) and shall be deemed an appeal from an administrative agency for the purposes of Rule 1101(a)(1) (appeals as of right from the Commonwealth Court)."

This Rule became effective July 1, 1976. By its terms it covers only review of arbitration awards in disputes between the Commonwealth and its employees, whereas Pa.R.J.A. 2101 embraced disputes between all public employers and their employees. Accordingly, a new Rule of Civil Procedure, Pa.R.C.P. 247, was promulgated concurrently, and likewise became effective on July 1, 1976. It provides:

"Review of Arbitration Awards in Local Public Employment Disputes

(a) Review of an award of arbitrators appointed in conformity with an Act of Assembly to arbitrate a dispute between a public employer and employee not within the scope of Rule 703 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure shall be sought exclusively in the courts of common pleas. The application for review shall be filed within thirty (30) days after the date of the award of the arbitrators."

Explanatory comment which accompanied the promulgation of both Pa.R.A.P. 703 and Pa.R.C.P. 247 notes that the rules relate to "arbitrators such as those appointed under the Act of June 24, 1968, P.L. 237, 43 P.S. § 217.1 et seq. (Act No. 111)."

The parties hereto correctly trace the origin of Pa.R.J.A. 2101 to our decision in City of Washington v. Police Department, 436 Pa. 168, 259 A.2d 437 (1969), and our prior Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rule 68 1/2. In City of Washington we held that notwithstanding the statutory prohibition against appeals from binding arbitration awards under Act No. 111 (police and fire unit collective bargaining), this Court would nevertheless entertain a petition to review an Act No. 111 arbitration award pursuant to Rule 68 1/2 (narrow certiorari) with issues limited to jurisdiction, regularity of proceedings, questions of the exercise of nonexistent power, and questions of violation of constitutional rights. When Rule 68 1/2 was omitted from a revision of this Court's rules in 1972, Pa.R.J.A. 2101 was promulgated to provide for review of arbitration awards under such circumstances.

It must be acknowledged that neither at the time Pa.R.J.A. 2101 was promulgated (1973), nor at the time it was superseded and replaced by Pa.R.A.P. 703 and Pa.R.C.P. 247 (1976), did this Court have specifically in mind review of arbitration awards under the PERA. ⁵ The Commonwealth Court in its opinion correctly pointed out, however, that "interest" arbitration such as that conducted under Act No. 111 is also provided for in the PERA with respect to bargaining impasses reached in disputes with units of employees which by the PERA are forbidden to strike. 43 P.S. § 1101.805 (Supp.1976-77) (guards and court personnel). Any attempt to limit Pa.R.A.P. 703 and P.R.C.P. 247 to "interest" arbitration would require us to say that some PERA arbitration is reviewed pursuant to those two rules and other PERA arbitration is reviewed by the procedure set forth in the Arbitration Act of 1927. Such a distinction, of course, is nowhere apparent in the text of the Act of 1927, which long preceded the PERA and the rules, or in the two rules of procedure. We agree with President Judge Bowman in his opinion below that "it would be incongruous to find the Act of 1927 applicable to arbitration awards issued under section 903 and the Public Employe Relations Act while section 805 arbitration awards under the same statute are within the scope of Pa.R.J.A. No. 2101." 17 Pa.Cmwlth. at 236, 331 A.2d at 924.

We conclude that review of arbitrators' awards in the public employment sector generally was properly sought at the time of the instant award under Pa.R.J.A. 2101 (i. e., in the Commonwealth Court), and is now to be sought by the procedure specified in Pa.R.A.P. 703 or Pa.R.C.P. 247, as the case may be, and that the procedure for seeking review set forth in section 13 of the Arbitration Act of 1927, 5 P.S. § 173, has been pro tanto superseded. The access to judicial consideration of this case was accordingly properly through the Commonwealth Court.

We come now to the substantive issues involved in this appeal. We hold, as did the Commonwealth Court, that the Arbitration Act of 1927 does apply to arbitration pursuant to PERA collective bargaining agreements; we hold also, contrary to the Commonwealth Court, that under the standard of review contained in that Act the award of the arbitrator should be upheld. This requires that we reverse the order appealed from and reinstate the award. In the discussion of these questions which follows we find it convenient to consider first the standard of review and then the applicability of the Act of 1927. We shall then address the application of the statutory standard to the specific facts of this case.

II.

The appellant faculty union and the public employee unions who appear as...