DocketNumber: Appeal, No. 1315 C.D. 1974
Citation Numbers: 21 Pa. Commw. 516
Judges: Blatt, Bowman, Crumlish, Kramer, Mencer, Rogers, Wilkinson
Filed Date: 11/6/1975
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 6/24/2022
Opinion by
The appellants, the parents of 13 public school students, filed their complaint in equity in the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction restraining the Lower Merion School District from transferring their children from the Merion to the Bala Elementary School. The complaint was filed August 28, 1974 and on the same day Judge Smillie granted an ex parte preliminary injunction requested by the plaintiffs and scheduled a hearing on the continuance of the injunction for September 3, 1974. It appears from the record that school was scheduled to commence in Lower Merion Township on September 4, 1974. Judge Cirillo conducted a hearing on the injunction on September 3, 1974 and on the following day handed down an order dissolving the preliminary injunction. In the same order the judge sustained preliminary objections which had been in the meantime filed by the defendants and dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint. On September 25,1974 Judge Cirillo handed down a second order dissolving the ex parte injunction and releasing a $200 bond which had been filed by the plaintiffs.
We can find nothing in the record which suggests that the defendants’ preliminary objections were ever the subject of argument in the court below. No mention of them was made at the hearing conducted by Judge Cirillo and the briefs and arguments made in this Court addressed themselves solely to the propriety of the dissolution of the preliminary injunction. We conclude, therefore, that the judge’s actions sustaining preliminary objections and dismissing the complaint by the order of September 4, 1974 were inadvertant and that we have before us for review only the propriety of Judge Cirillo’s action dissolving the ex parte injunction.
“This is an appeal from an Order denying a preliminary injunction. In such a case, the issue before this Court and our scope of review is whether there was a clear abuse of discretion, or palpable legal error, and the merits of the case are not considered or decided: City Line Open Hearth, Inc. v. Hotel, Motel & Club Employees’ Union, 413 Pa. 420, 436, 197 A.2d 614; Mc Donald v. Noga, 393 Pa. 309, 311, 141 A.2d 842.
“In McDonald v. Noga, 393 Pa., supra, the Court said (page 311) : ‘On an appeal from a decree granting or refusing a preliminary injunction, the appellant has a very heavy burden to overcome; such a decree will not be interfered with upon appellate review in the absence of a plain abuse of discretion by the court below: Aldrich v. Geahry, 360 Pa. 376, 379, 61 A.2d 843. . . .’
“In City Line Open Hearth, Inc. v. Hotel, Motel & Club Employees’ Union, 413 Pa., supra, the Court said (page 436) : ‘On an appeal from the grant or refusal of a preliminary injunction, the test in this Court is well settled. We consider and decide, not the merits of the case but only whether there were any apparently reasonable or justifiable grounds for the action of the Court below; and if such exists, the Decree (or Order) will be affirmed unless the record presents palpable legal error: . . . .’
“We place our decision on the well recognized ground that there was no clear abuse of discretion, or palpable legal error.” 432 Pa. at 2-3, 246 A.2d at 649-50. (Citations omitted.)
We find ample grounds for the order appealed from. While it is unnecessary for us to consider and decide the merits, we will nevertheless comment briefly on the issues and the evidence in the interest of completeness.
The plaintiffs also state that the denial to their children of an option of schools granted to other pupils violates their right to equal protection of the laws. A classification for purpose of school assignment based on the residence of the persons assigned seems clearly reasonable. Indeed, our Supreme Court has held that the broad discretion given school boards in the assignment of pupils is not abused by requiring attendance at schools removed from their neighborhoods. Balsbaugh v. Rowland, 447 Pa. 423, 290 A.2d 85 (1972).
We find no clear abuse of discretion or palpable error of law in the action of the court dissolving the ex parte preliminary injunction. We therefore affirm the lower
. Section 1310 reads pertinently as follows:
“The board of school directors of every school district or joint school shall, for the purpose of designating the schools*521 to be attended by the several pupils in the district or area served by the joint board, subdivide the district or joint school in such manner that all the pupils in the district shall be assigned to, and reasonably accommodated in, one of the public schools in the district or joint school. The board of school directors may, upon cause shown, permit any pupil or pupils in any school district to attend such other school in the district as the board may deem proper, or may classify and assign the pupils in the district to any school or schools therein as it may deem best, in order to properly educate them....”