Merrell v. Chartiers Valley School Dist.

• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Citation: Merrell v. Chartiers Valley School Dist., 579 Pa. 97, 855 A.2d 713 (Pa. 2004)
• Decision Date: 18 August 2004
• Parties: William MERRELL, Appellee, v. CHARTIERS VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Bernard A. Sulkowski, Michael L. Bonacci, Thomas Helbig, Michael Dempster, Jeff Choura, John Franjione, Patricia Frey, Bridget Kelly, Kathleen Lewis, Beth McIntyre, Mary Lou Petronsky, Appellants.

855 A.2d 713

579 Pa. 97

William MERRELL, Appellee, v. CHARTIERS VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Bernard A. Sulkowski, Michael L. Bonacci, Thomas Helbig, Michael Dempster, Jeff Choura, John Franjione, Patricia Frey, Bridget Kelly, Kathleen Lewis, Beth McIntyre, Mary Lou Petronsky, Appellants.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued September 8, 2003.

Decided August 18, 2004.

Michael Louis Brungo, Esq., Gregory C. Melucci, Esq., Julie Marie Pfeiffer, Esq., Alfred C. Maiello, Esq., Pittsburgh, for Chartiers Valley School District, et al.

Michael Edwin Kennedy, Esq., for William Merrell.

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and LAMB, JJ.

OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

Justice NEWMAN.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania encourages and recognizes the service of her armed forces. In terms of repayment, veterans of the Revolutionary War received grants of land in new territories,¹ and Pennsylvania passed the first Veterans' Preference Act in 1887, Act of May 19, 1887, P.L. 75 (repealed), which provided that honorably discharged Civil War veterans receive preferential treatment "for employment in all public departments and works of the Commonwealth, provided such veterans possessed the other requisite qualifications." Op. Att'y Gen. No. 320, 192 (1940). Later, the Act of April 12, 1939, P.L. 27 (repealed), extended the veterans' preference in public employment to "veterans of all wars wherein the Nation engaged." Id. Over the ensuing decades, this statute has been amended, repealed, and reenacted until the version at issue in the instant matter went into effect on January 1, 1976, with little deviation from the initial Act. Within this historical perspective, we review the challenge of the Chartiers Valley School District (School District), and the members of its Board of Education (Board), to an Order of the Commonwealth Court, reversing an Order of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas (Common Pleas), dismissing the Complaint of William Merrell (Merrell) as untimely filed.

FACTS and PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts are not in dispute. Prior to the commencement of the 1997-98 school year, Merrell applied for an advertised position with the School District as a social studies teacher. He was not selected. In 1999, Merrell again applied for an advertised position, this time advancing to the fourth step of the School District's five-step hiring process. By letter dated April 28, 1999, the School District informed Merrell that it had appointed another candidate. The School District did not specify the reasons for not selecting Merrell. Subsequently, on May 10, 1999, counsel for Merrell wrote to the School District Superintendent, requesting that the School District reconsider its decision to hire another candidate for the upcoming school year because Merrell was entitled to preference in employment by virtue of the Veterans' Preference Act.²

Receiving no response to his letter, Merrell filed a Complaint in Equity on July 21, 1999, and an amended complaint on September 30, 1999. He alleged a diminution of wage earning capacity as well as a loss of tenure, wages, and other benefits accompanying a position with the School District. He requested that Common Pleas order the School District to hire him as a social studies teacher with credit for lost tenure, and to pay him lost wages commencing from the date that the School District initially failed to hire him for the 1997-98 school year.

In response, the School District filed Preliminary Objections, alleging that Common Pleas lacked subject matter jurisdiction on the basis that the School District is a local agency and that the provisions of the Local Agency Law, 2 Pa.C.S. §§ 551-555, 751-754, provide the exclusive means by which decisions of local government agencies can be contested. The School District claimed that its letter of April 28, 1999, constituted an adjudication from which Merrell was required to file an appeal within thirty days pursuant to Section 5571(b) of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 5571(b). Relying on In re Appeal of Gomez, 688 A.2d 1261 (Pa.Cmwlth.1997),³ Common Pleas held that the April 28th letter issued by the School District was an adjudication within the meaning of 2 Pa. C.S. § 101. Noting that Merrell filed his Complaint almost ninety days after the adjudication, Common Pleas sustained the Preliminary Objections of the School District and dismissed the Amended Complaint with prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Finally, the court observed that there is no property right in prospective employment, only in the termination of existing employment.

The Commonwealth Court reversed in an unpublished Opinion and remanded the matter to Common Pleas for an appeal nunc pro tunc and de novo review. The court agreed with the School District that the Local Agency Law provided the mandatory and exclusive statutory means to challenge a decision of the Board.⁴ It also concluded that Merrell had a property right to preference in employment. The court relied on the decisions in Carter v. City of Philadelphia, 989 F.2d 117 (3d Cir.1993), and Pennsylvania State Troopers Ass'n v. Pennsylvania State Police, 800 A.2d 995 (Pa.Cmwlth.), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 572 Pa. 715, 813 A.2d 847 (2002), to find that a protected property interest existed and that due process concerns required notice and an opportunity to be heard. It also concluded that, based on Callahan v. Pennsylvania State Police, 494 Pa. 461, 431 A.2d 946 (1981), the April 28th letter was not a valid adjudication.

DISCUSSION

The threshold issue is whether the April 28th letter from the Board indicating that it would be hiring another candidate for the position constituted an adjudication within the context of the Local Agency Law. If it did, Merrell's Complaint was untimely and Common Pleas correctly dismissed the Complaint with prejudice.

An "adjudication" is defined in Section 101 of Administrative Law and Procedure, 2 Pa.C.S. § 101, as "[a]ny final order, decree, decision, determination or ruling by an agency affecting personal or property rights, privileges, immunities, duties, liabilities or obligations of any or all of the parties to the proceeding in which the adjudication is made." Further, "[n]o adjudication of a local agency shall be valid as to any party unless he shall have been afforded reasonable notice of a hearing and an opportunity to be heard." 2 Pa. C.S. § 553. Thus, for a letter of elimination to qualify as a valid adjudication, it must (1) represent a final order, decree, decision, determination or ruling; (2) impact on individual personal or property rights, privileges, immunities, duties, liabilities or obligations, Guthrie v. Borough of Wilkinsburg, 505 Pa. 249, 478 A.2d 1279, 1281 (1984); and (3) comply with the statutory requirements of notice and an opportunity to be heard. 2 Pa.C.S. § 553. To have a property interest, an individual must have a legitimate claim of entitlement or expectation arising from an independent source, such as state law or contract. See Adler v. Montefiore Hosp. Ass'n, 453 Pa. 60, 311 A.2d 634, 645 (1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1131, 94 S.Ct. 870, 38 L.Ed.2d 755 (1974); see also Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972).

It is axiomatic that there is no inherent property interest in prospective employment. However, in the instant matter, a state statute, the Veterans' Preference Act, confers an interest on those who meet certain established criteria. The applicant must be a veteran, must be honorably discharged, and must possess the minimum qualifications to perform the duties involved. 51 Pa.C.S. §§ 7101, 7104(a). Further, there is a constitutional necessity that the qualifications of the veteran be established before the veteran is entitled to the preference. See Eggleston v. City of Philadelphia, 380 Pa. 158, 110 A.2d 183, 185 (1955); Carney v. Lowe, 336 Pa. 289, 9 A.2d 418, 420 (1939). As we have previously indicated, there "must be some reasonable relation between the basis of preference and the object to be obtained...." Commonwealth ex rel. Maurer v. O'Neill, 368 Pa. 369, 83 A.2d 382, 383 (1951) (quoting Commonwealth ex rel. Graham v. Schmid, 333 Pa. 568, 3 A.2d 701, 704 (1938)). "`No property interest in government employment exists per se....'" Guthrie, 478 A.2d at 1282 (quoting Sterling v. Dept. of Environmental Resources, 504 Pa. 7, 470 A.2d 101, 104 (1983)).

In determining that the April 28th letter was not an adjudication, the Commonwealth Court sought guidance in the decision of this Court in Callahan. There, a police officer received a letter informing him that the benefits he had been receiving pursuant to the Heart and Lung Act,⁵ were being terminated. The officer challenged the determination of the Commonwealth Court that the letter constituted an adjudication from which he had not timely appealed. The challenge was grounded on the basis that he had been denied an opportunity to be heard. This Court essentially agreed that the letter announced a final determination of the officer's property rights, but concluded that the Administrative Agency Law "expressly requires an agency to supply an aggrieved party notice of a hearing and an opportunity to be heard." Callahan, 431 A.2d at 948. Therefore, Callahan represents a three-step process to determine whether an agency letter constitutes an adjudication. Initially, the determination must be made as to whether actual property rights are implicated. Next, there must be an assessment as to whether the letter constitutes final agency action. Finally, if the letter has satisfied the first two steps, it is an adjudication, but it is not a valid adjudication if there is an absence of notice and an opportunity to be heard; an invalid adjudication does not trigger a claim limitations period. Implicit in our decision was the determination that Officer Callahan had a...