Opinion
Argued December 13, 1982
February 23, 1983.
Zoning — Standing of zoning board to appeal.
1. A municipality intervening in a zoning appeal in a court of common pleas has standing to appeal an adverse decision, but a zoning hearing board has no standing to appeal a final order of a court of common pleas. [260]
Argued December 13, 1982, before Judges BLATT, WILLIAMS, JR. and CRAIG, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 172 C.D. 1981, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County in case of Richard Wengert v. Zoning Hearing Board of Upper Merion Township, No. 76-19836.
Application with the Zoning Hearing Board of Merion Township for special exception. Application denied. Applicants appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County. Following remand and subsequent denial by board, decision reversed. DAVENPORT, J. Township appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Decision reversed. Case remanded. ( 51 Pa. Commw. 79) Permit ordered issued. DAVENPORT, J. Zoning hearing board appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Appeal quashed. Petition for reargument/reconsideration filed and denied.
Gregory J. Dean, Meneses Dean, for appellant.
Lois Reznick, Dechert, Price Rhoads, for appellee.
The Zoning Hearing Board of Upper Merion Township appeals an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County which reversed a decision of that board denying the appellee's request for a special exception.
In Zoning Hearing Board of Derry Township v. Dove, 69 Pa. Commw. 486, 486-7, 451 A.2d 812, 812-13 (1982), we recognized that:
The long-settled rule is that a zoning hearing board has no standing to appeal a final order of a court of common pleas. Landsdowne Borough of Adjustment's Appeal, 313 Pa. 523, 170 A. 867 (1934). Here the township itself could have intervened in the common pleas court under Section 1009 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Code. . . . However, at no point in these proceedings has the township sought to intervene or otherwise to become the appellant.
As the Supreme Court indicated in Landsdowne, the zoning hearing board can no more take an appeal to an appellate court than a master could. . . . Hence, without a lawful party appellant, this proceeding has no jurisdictional existence before us, and we must dismiss it sua sponte. See National Development Corporation v. Township of Harrison, 64 Pa. Commw. 54, 438 A.2d 1053 (1982). (Footnotes omitted; citation omitted.)
The Zoning Hearing Board of Upper Merion Township, therefore, has no standing to bring the instant appeal. Id. Moreover, it is clear from the record that, although Upper Merion Township could have had standing to bring this appeal had it intervened in the court of common pleas, it did not do so.
We must, therefore, dismiss this action for want of a lawful party appellant. Id.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 23rd day of February, 1983, the appeal of the Zoning Hearing Board of Upper Merion Township in the above-captioned matter is hereby quashed.