DocketNumber: Appeal, No. 47 C.D. 1975
Citation Numbers: 22 Pa. Commw. 94
Judges: Blatt, Bowman, Crumlish, Kramer, Mencer, Rogers, Wilkinson
Filed Date: 11/25/1975
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 6/24/2022
Opinion by
Section 318 of The Public School Code of 1949, Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, as amended, 24 P.S. §3-318, authorizes any ten resident taxpayers of the school district to petition for an order removing directors in circumstances there described. The instant appellees filed such a petition. The appellants, members of the school board, filed preliminary objections, including one disputing the lower court’s jurisdiction of the petition on the ground that some of the appellees did not own real property within the school district. The lower court rejected the appellants’ contention that the phrase “resident taxpayers” means residents who own taxable real estate and dismissed the objection.
The appellees have filed a motion to quash this appeal on the ground that the lower court’s order is interlocutory. The appellants respond that their preliminary objections raised a question of the lower court’s jurisdiction, the dismissal of which is appealable by the Act of March 5, 1925, P.L. 23, 12 P.S. §672. We agree with the appellees that the appellants’ preliminary objection alleging the court’s lack of jurisdiction was really an attack on the standing of some of them to be petitioners. Such an attack, of course, does not go to the court’s jurisdiction over the subject matter, which in this case is specifically conferred by statute. Zerbe Township School District v. Thomas, 353 Pa. 162, 44 A.2d 566 (1945). While we must quash the appeal on this ground, we will nevertheless express our agreement with the lower court that the appellants’ objection to some of the appellees’ standing has no merit.
Appeal quashed.