Grime v. Department of Public Instruction
| Decision Date | 23 November 1936 |
| Docket Number | 1 |
| Citation | 324 Pa. 371,188 A. 337 |
| Parties | Grime et al., Appellants, v. Department of Public Instruction of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Argued October 13, 1936
Appeal, No. 1, May T., 1937, by plaintiffs, from decree of C.P. Dauphin Co., Commonwealth Docket, 1935, No. 75, in case of Edmond J. Grime et al., partners, trading and doing business as Grime and Blair, v. Department of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Board of Undertakers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Motion to quash appeal dismissed and decree affirmed.
Appeal from decision of board of undertakers refusing branch license.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
Appeal dismissed, opinion by WICKERSHAM, J. Applicants for license appealed.
Error assigned, among others, was final decree.
The motion to quash the appeal is dismissed, and the decree of the court below is affirmed at the cost of appellants.
Charles B. Prichard, for appellants.
W. F Daniels, Deputy Attorney General, and Charles J. Margiotti Attorney General, for appellees, were not heard.
Before KEPHART, C.J., SCHAFFER, DREW, LINN and STERN, JJ.
Appellants, undertakers in the City of Pittsburgh, licensed prior to the passage of the Act of June 10, 1931, P.L. 485, applied for a branch license to the State Board of Undertakers, which held that the Act of 1931 prohibited its issuance, and denied the request. An appeal was taken to the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County and the action of the Board was affirmed.
Appellees moved to quash the present appeal, asserting it is barred by the Act. Section 10 gives any applicant or licensee, for thirty days after his license has been refused, suspended or revoked, a right of appeal to the Common Pleas Court of Dauphin County, and provides that the action of that court shall be final.
We reviewed at some length in White Twp. School Directors' Appeal, 300 Pa. 422, the law relative to appeals under statutes which control the activities of administrative boards and the responsibility of the court of first instance in such matters. While the legislature has power to limit appellate review upon providing new statutory remedies, it cannot take away our common law prerogative of reviewing the controversy by certiorari. Where a statute is silent on the right of appeal this Court may review the case in the broadest sense allowed on certiorari; but where an appeal is expressly denied or it is provided that the action of the court below shall be final, our appellate review will be limited to questions of jurisdiction and those relating to the regularity of the proceedings: White Twp. School Directors' Appeal, supra; Twenty-first Senatorial District Nomination, 281 Pa. 273; Rimer's Contested Election, 316 Pa. 342.
Since the undertaking business cannot be engaged in without a license, and the State Board is the only agency empowered to issue licenses, it is appellants' contention that under the Act of 1931 appellants, as old licensees, are entitled to a license for a branch office. The Board denied the application on the ground that it could issue but one license to a single applicant, to be used at one place. It did not assume jurisdiction; but, rather, held it had none. Appellants insist that it has jurisdiction and must exercise it. The question can only be answered by a consideration of the enabling Act.
The State placed the business of undertaking under supervision and for this purpose adopted specific regulations. To a State Board was committed the power to grant or refuse licenses to engage in the business. The Act designates who may receive licenses and what places may be operated. Applicants are a partnership. This partnership wished to secure two licenses, one for each of two locations. It already had one on renewal for its principal establishment and sought a new one for a branch office. The Act authorizes the Board to issue only one license to one person and provides that only one place can be operated by the licensee. Though the partnership consisted of two persons who were duly licensed undertakers, when they made a joint application as a partnership for a license, it was to be treated as a single applicant and a license issued to it could be issued for only one place. The Board consequently held the Act prevented it from granting to appellants, as a partnership, two licenses, a renewal and a branch license, to operate undertaking establishments at two different places. It did not attempt to broaden the scope of its legislatively-granted powers; its decision construed the limit of such powers.
Does the record presented to this court disclose any jurisdictional grounds for reversal? Appellants requested the Board to issue a license to them. The Board had the exclusive power to issue licenses to undertakers, but it denied having the power to issue the type of license applied for. In so doing it construed its own power under the statute and its interpretation is jurisdictional. While it is true, as a general rule, that an administrative body may interpret the statute which confers upon it duties and functions, and its construction is persuasive upon the courts because it is the body entrusted with the execution of the statute (see Heath v. Wallace, 138 U.S. 573; Logan v. Davis, 233 U.S. 613) nevertheless such a body cannot enlarge or diminish its own jurisdiction under the statute by erroneous construction, and determinations of this sort are always subject to judicial review. This is strikingly evidenced in the case of Interstate Commerce Commission v. United States ex rel. Humboldt Steamship Co., 224 U.S. 474. In that case the Commissioners refused to require certain Alaskan shippers to file rate schedules because, under their interpretation of the Act, Alaskan commerce was not within their jurisdiction. They based this conclusion upon an erroneous construction of the word "territory" in the Interstate Commerce Act. The party aggrieved sought a writ of mandamus to compel the Commission to act. The Commission pleaded that since it was the body principally charged with the enforcement of the Act, the preliminary question of its jurisdiction thereunder was as much within the scope of its authority as any other question of interpretation which could arise, and that its decision thereon was binding upon the courts. The Supreme Court of the United States, holding mandamus a proper remedy, said, at p. 484:
And, in United States ex rel. Louisville Cement Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 246 U.S. 638, it was held that the action of the Commission in denying its power to pass upon a claim, because of an erroneous conception of the time limitation imposed by the Act, was a jurisdictional interpretation reviewable in mandamus proceedings.
In the present case the Board was not acting within its discretion to grant or refuse licenses under the Act, nor was it merely interpreting a rule of law intended for its guidance. It made a square holding, based upon its interpretation of the statute, that it was without authority thereunder to issue branch licenses. This determination was jurisdictional and consequently subject to review by the courts as to the correctness of the construction placed by the Board upon the statute. However, the judicial tribunal given exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from that body is the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County. The appeal comes to us on certiorari, not from the ruling of the Board but from the decision of the court below. The record we examine on certiorari is the record of that court. In such case we are merely concerned with the question as to whether or not it had proper jurisdiction. The law of this State as to what is jurisdiction is well settled. Where a court has jurisdiction over the parties and over the cause of action, it has full power to act in the premises. In the present case the court below had jurisdiction over appellants who submitted themselves to its authority by following the appellate procedure established by the Act. It had jurisdiction also over the cause of action, which has been defined to relate "solely to the competency of the particular court to determine controversies of the general class to which the case then presented for its consideration belongs": Skelton v. Lower Merion Township, 298 Pa. 471, 473; Welser v. Ealer, 317 Pa. 182, 184, and see Koontz v. Messer, 314 Pa. 434; Staryeu v. Midouhas, 299 Pa. 352; Lackawanna County v. James, 296 Pa. 225; Rutherford Water Co. v. Harrisburg, 297 Pa. 33; (decided under the Act of March 5, 1925, P.L. 23, Sec. 1).
The statute conferred upon the Court of Dauphin County the right to hear appeals from the Board and to finally determine all matters arising in such appeals. This appeal was within the scope of that authority and consequently the court below had full and complete jurisdiction to pass upon the interpretation of the statute by the Board. It was a final adjudication of a question arising on an administrative matter of government that emanated from legislative action unburdened by common law rules. Even if its construction of the statute had been erroneous, it is the final court of appeal in such matters. See White Township School Directors' Appeal, supra, at 428.
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