The Commission notes, even if local practice required a notice of appeal and not a petition, the state law contained in the First Class Township Code would govern, not the local rule. The trial court decided that Scott v. Bristol Township Police Department, 669 A.2d 457 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1995), controlled the outcome of Orenshaw's appeal. In Scott, this Court affirmed an order of the trial court that quashed Scott's appeal from an order of the local civil service commission upholding his employment termination as a police officer. The Scott trial court quashed the appeal because Scott did not timely file his appeal and petition for review from the local civil service commission's decision and thus ignored the clear requirement of Section 645 of the Code to file a petition.
Claimant's brief focuses on the merits of her substantive benefits claims, her former attorney's allegedly inadequate representation, and her employer's witnesses' alleged dishonesty, rather than the timeliness of her appeal to the Board. Notwithstanding, this Court considers whether the Board properly concluded that Claimant's appeal was untimely, because "the question of the timeliness of the appeal goes to the subject matter jurisdiction of the [body] to hear it[,]" Scott v. Bristol Twp. Police Dep't, 669 A.2d 457 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1995), and "[t]he question of subject matter jurisdiction . . . can never be waived; it may be raised at any stage in the proceedings or sua sponte by the court." Pa. Nat'l Guard v. Workmen's Comp. Appeal Bd., 437 A.2d 494, 496 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1981).
We have recognized, however, that a trial court may adopt by local rule all or a portion of the Appellate Rules and thereby make them applicable to proceedings in the trial court. See Scott v. Bristol Twp. Police Dep't, 669 A.2d 457, 459 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1995). The Court, however, is not aware of a local rule of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County adopting Chapter 15 of the Appellate Rules, and neither the trial court nor Appellees cite to any such local rule.
Section 15 of the Sunshine Act provides that "courts of common pleas shall have original jurisdiction of actions involving other [than State] agencies to render declaratory judgments or to enforce this act, by injunction or other remedy deemed appropriate by the court." The Rules of Appellate Procedure apply to the practice and procedure in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. Pa. R.A.P. 103. They do not apply to proceedings in common pleas court absent a local rule expressly incorporating them. Scott v. Bristol Township Police Dep't, 669 A.2d 457 (Pa.Commw. 1995). This Court has held that Section 13 of the Sunshine Act, 65 P. S. ยง 283, in providing for a "legal challenge" to claims of violation, did not specify the form of action, and that the manner in which the legal challenge is commenced, whether by complaint, writ, agreement or other recognized means, is of no particular significance.