8 Pa. Commw. 343 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1973
Opinion by
The appellee, Beth Jacob Schools of Philadelphia, is a nonprofit corporation engaged in the education, both secular and religious, of Jewish children from kindergarten through high school. It conducts its program in synagogues. Forty-seven teachers, 25 secular and 22 religious (including seven rabbis), instruct the 390 students. Approximately one-half of the teaching time is spent on religious subjects, taught with particular emphasis on understanding and observance of Jewish law embodied in the book of Moses and the prophets, the Talmud and the codes of Jewish living. The school educates its students in conservative or orthodox doc
Some of the appellee’s instructors, calling themselves the Beth Jacob Teachers’ Association, filed with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board a petition pursuant to the Public Employe Relations Act
Public employer is defined by the Public Employe Relations Act
The Labor Relations Board states the question before us to be whether the court properly granted injunctive relief. It contends, of course, that it, not the court, should first decide whether there was power to act, subject to either party’s right to appeal under the administrative process.
Unwarranted inquisition is not infrequently as harmful as spurious prosecution; and in a free society it should be as promptly interdicted. If there is anything certain in Pennsylvania jurisprudence it is that the courts of this State will enjoin government and its creatures from exercising powers forbidden them by constitution or not conferred by statutes; and this, without regard to whether the complainant is afforded the right to judicial review. The people of this Commonwealth are not required to submit to governmental excess while the administrative process is played out. Hence, although other remedies are available, State taxes may be struck down (Amidon v. Kane, 444 Pa. 38, 279 A. 2d 53 (1971)); local levies nullified (Lynch v. Owen J. Roberts School District, 430 Pa. 461, 244 A. 2d 1 (1968)); school directors enjoined from abusing their discretion (Mason v. Hanover Twp. School District, 242 Pa. 359, 89 A. 552 (1913)); state commissions restrained from inquisitional abuse (Annenberg v. Roberts, 333 Pa. 203, 2 A. 2d 612 (1938)); state administrative bodies enjoined from performing unconstitutionally delegated legislative functions (Bell Telephone Company of Penna v. Driscoll, 343 Pa. 109, 21 A. 2d 912 (1941)); and municipal functionaries required to
It also appears that the Commonwealth provides appellee the sum of $300 for the purchase of library books which remain the property of the State. This is one of the rare occasions on which an ancient maxim is helpful in solving a modern problem. The maxim “De minimis non curat lew” means that the law does not take account of trifling and immaterial matters. Even if this were a grant from the Commonwealth, which it
Affirmed.
Section 603(e) of the Act of July 23, 1970, P. L. 563, 43 P.S. §1101.603(c).
Section 301(1), 43 P.S. §1101.301(1).
The suit was in mandamus, a form of action which is, however, governed by equitable principles. Dombrowski v. Philadelphia, 431 Pa. 199, 245 A. 2d 238 (1968).