OPINION BY Judge BROBSON. Petitioner Michael W. Palladino (Claimant) petitions for review of an order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board). The Board affirmed a decision of an Unemployment Compensation Referee (Referee), denying Claimant unemployment compensation benefits pursuant to Section 402(e) of the Unemployment Compensation Law (Law), 1 based on willful misconduct. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse. Claimant applied for unemployment compensation benefits...
OPINION BY Judge BROBSON. Petitioner Joseph D. Dubaskas (Dubaskas) petitions for review of an order of the Board of Claims (Board), dated March 15, 2013. The Board sustained the preliminary objection filed by the Department of Corrections (Department), Pennsylvania Correctional Industries (PCI), and the Department's Bureau of Human Resources (Bureau) (collectively Respondents) on the ground that the Board lacked jurisdiction over both counts of Dubaskas's Statement of Claim (Claim). In so...
OPINION BY Senior Judge FRIEDMAN. The Media Swimming and Rowing Club, a Corporation, now known as The Broomall's Lake Country Club (Club), appeals from the February 26, 2013, order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County (trial court) that revoked, sua sponte, the stipulation and order entered by the trial court on May 26, 2011. We vacate the February 26, 2013, order and remand to the trial court for consideration of Club's petition for contempt and enforcement of the stipulation...
OPINION BY Judge BROBSON. Laurence Halstead (Halstead) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Carbon County (trial court). Following a de novo hearing, the trial court determined that Halstead had violated seven provisions of the Property Maintenance Ordinance (PMO) of the Borough of Weaver (Borough). 1 The trial court also imposed fines for each violation from $500 to $1,000 per day commencing January 13, 2013, the date on which the trial court found Halstead guilty. We...
OPINION BY Judge LEADBETTER. Before the Court are (1) a motion for summary relief "in the form of judgment on the pleadings" filed by the Sewer Authority of the City of Scranton (Sewer Authority) in its action against the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (PENNVEST) and PENNVEST's executive director, Paul Marchetti, (collectively PENNVEST), and (2) PENNVEST's preliminary objections to the Sewer Authority's first amended petition for review....
OPINION BY Judge SIMPSON. I. Introduction In these consolidated appeals, Dr. Keith Kull (Kull) seeks review of two orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County (trial court) that sustained Defendants' preliminary objections to Kull's fourth amended complaints (amended complaint) against two sets of Defendant-Appellees (Appellees), 1 and dismissed Kull's claims against Appellees' with prejudice. In his amended complaint, Kull, a former assistant professor at Kutztown University (KU),...
OPINION BY Judge McCULLOUGH. Nancy Turner (Claimant) petitions for review of the March 1, 2013 order of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board), which affirmed the decision of a workers' compensation judge (WCJ) granting a suspension petition filed by the City of Pittsburgh (Employer). We now vacate and remand. On February 5, 1994, Claimant was involved in a motor vehicle accident in the course and scope of her employment as a police officer for Employer. As a result of this accident,...
OPINION BY Judge LEAVITT. Karen Hertzler appeals an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County (trial court) that upheld her threeday suspension from her position as a school principal. The West Shore School District suspended Hertzler for sharing the news with a colleague that she had been exonerated by an investigation conducted by the School District into a teacher's charge that Hertzler had harassed her. Hertzler contends that her suspension was unfounded because the School...
OPINION BY Judge LEAVITT. 1 Charles Coley appeals, pro se, an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County (trial court) that denied Coley's request for records under the Right-to-Know Law. 2 Coley sought access to records compiled by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office during a criminal investigation that resulted in Coley's arrest and conviction for murder. The trial court held that the requested records were exempt from disclosure under the Right-to-Know Law...
OPINION BY Senior Judge FRIEDMAN. Carla J. Koontz and Susan C. Waugerman, Executrices of The Estate of R. Carl Pencil, a/k/a Richard Carl Pencil (Pencil) 1 appeal from the May 22, 2012, order of the Bedford County Court of Common Pleas (trial court), which dismissed the exceptions filed by Pencil to the Board of Viewers' (Viewers) report, confirmed the report and, among other things, directed the Viewers to supplement their report within 60 days with a plot or draft of the private road...
OPINION BY Senior Judge FRIEDMAN. Nevin Mindlin (Candidate) appeals from the August 15, 2013, order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County (trial court) granting the petition (Objection Petition) of Donald Lee Coles (Objector) to set aside Candidate's nomination papers (Nomination Papers) for the Office of Mayor of the City of Harrisburg and striking Candidate's name from the ballot. We affirm. Candidate 1 filed his Nomination Papers with the Dauphin County Bureau of Elections and...
OPINION BY Judge LEAVITT. Randall Harrison (Claimant) petitions for review of an adjudication of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) denying his request to expand the list of his compensable work injuries and terminating his workers' compensation benefits. In doing so, the Board affirmed the Workers' Compensation Judge's (WCJ) determination that Claimant had fully recovered from the accepted work injury and that the medical problems identified by Claimant in his review petition were...
OPINION BY Judge BROBSON. 1 Shawnee Tabernacle Church (Church) and Dennis Bloom (Bloom) (collectively, Petitioners) petition for review of the May 11, 2012 order of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission (Commission). In that order, the Commission denied the Church's petition to intervene in an administrative proceeding initiated by the Commission against Bloom under the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act, 65 Pa. C.S. 1101-1113 (Ethics Act). Because the Commission did not abuse its...
OPINION BY President Judge PELLEGRINI. The City of Philadelphia (Philadelphia), Mayor Michael A. Nutter, Richard Negrin and Lloyd Ayers (collectively, City) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County (trial court) granting peremptory judgment in mandamus to Philadelphia Firefighters Union, Local 22, and its officers (collectively, Union) and requiring the City to promote employees from promotional lists for Fire Captain and Fire Lieutenant into all "budgeted...
OPINION BY Judge McGINLEY. Before this Court in its original jurisdiction is the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Republican Caucus of the Senate of PA/AKA Senate of PA Republican Caucus (hereinafter "Senate Republican Caucus"). 1 In 1997, the Senate Republican Caucus and Precision Marketing, Inc. (Precision Marketing) entered into a Consulting Agreement whereby Precision Marketing agreed to develop and provide the Senate Republican Caucus with...
OPINION BY President Judge PELLEGRINI. Michael Barylak and Maria Barylak (collectively, the Barylaks) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County (trial court) denying their Petition Raising Objections and Exceptions to Upset Tax Sale (Petition). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court. On September 15, 2010, the Montgomery County (County) Tax Claim Bureau (Bureau) sold property owned by the Barylaks located at 610 Cedar Road, Abington Township,...
OPINION BY Judge McCULLOUGH. Dustin C. Sams (Sams), by his guardian and mother, Julie L. Raybuck (Raybuck), petitions for review of the November 15, 2012 final administrative action order of the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) affirming the determination of an administrative law judge (ALJ) that Sams is ineligible for Medicaid/Home and Community Based Service Long Term Care (HCBS-LTC) 1 from July 1, 2012, to November 22, 2014, because he transferred an asset, valued at $232,474.15, for...
OPINION BY Judge COHN JUBELIRER. Robert T. McClintock (Requester) filed four Right-to-Know Law 1 (RTKL) Requests for records from the Coatesville Area School District (District). The District did not respond to his Requests within five business days; therefore, under the RTKL, 2 his Requests were "deemed denied." Receiving no response, Requester first appealed to the Office of Open Records (OOR), which partially granted his Requests, and then to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County (...
OPINION BY Judge LEADBETTER. Taxpayer, Tristan Radiology Specialists, P.C., 1 petitions for review of the order of the Board of Finance and Revenue (Board) denying Taxpayer's petition for refund of sales and use taxes ($61,845.44) paid on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) machines, canned software associated therewith, and electricity to power such equipment during the period October 2006 through December 2008. The issue on appeal is whether these items are...
OPINION BY Judge LEAVITT. Clyde Kennedy (Claimant) petitions for review of an adjudication of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) granting the request of Henry Modell & Co., Inc. (Employer) to recover the workers' compensation benefits it paid to Claimant by way of a subrogation lien against Claimant's third party recovery. In doing so, the Board affirmed the Workers' Compensation Judge's (WCJ) determination that Employer is entitled to subrogation because Claimant's tort damages...