Ask a Lawyer: Pennsylvania Appeals Process

By: Steven M. Williams

I received a possession judgment against one of my residents. She has appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. One of my employees is suggesting that we find a way to resolve the dispute because, he says, the appeal will be long and expensive. What is involved in an appeal?

Whether you should resolve the dispute is very fact-specific. But your employee is right that the appeal could take a long time and be expensive. Here is the basic process and expected time frames:

• First, you must file a complaint in the appeal. Your complaint outlines your claim and the relief you seek (possession, rent, ). Once filed, you must serve the complaint on the resident. Service can be by personal delivery or first-class mail.
• Within 30 days from the date of service (e., the date you mail or hand deliver the complaint), your resident must file an answer to your complaint. If she includes a counterclaim or allegations that you need to answer, you have 30 days to file a response.
• Once you file your response, if one is needed, both parties can engage in “discovery.” In discovery, each party can ask the other to provide information and documents related to the case and take depositions. Discovery is not typical in an eviction appeal but is allowed and sometimes occurs. The discovery period will take however long the parties need to exchange information/documents and produce witnesses for depositions. It can easily add six or more months to the appeal process.
• Once discovery is completed, you can list the case for an arbitration hearing. At the hearing presided over by three attorneys, you will present your case, and your resident will present her defense and potential counterclaim. In the appeal, what happened at the MDJ court is irrelevant; you must present your entire case as if the MDJ hearing had not occurred. Most county courts have a set schedule for arbitration hearings. Others simply schedule the hearings when a party requests it. Depending on when you are ready to list the case, it could be a couple of months before you have the hearing.
• After the arbitration hearing, the losing party has the right to appeal. If an appeal is filed, a judge or jury will hear the case again. The time it takes to get to this hearing will depend on how busy the court is and its trial schedule. A trial could occur within a few months or longer.

From start to finish, this entire process could take 12 or more months. Some counties automatically set arbitration hearings to occur within a short period (3 – 4 months) after the appeal has been filed. But, most county courts do not, and the parties control the pace of the case. Also, in some counties, the judges set a case schedule that controls the timing of the process. In most counties, however, the parties control it and must take steps to keep the case moving.

Landlords who are individuals can represent themselves in the appeal (although I generally do not recommend it). Landlords who are entities, though, cannot represent themselves and must have a lawyer handle the appeal. If your lease contains an attorney’s fee provision, you can seek in the appeal the attorney’s fees you incur. However, there is no guarantee that a judge will award attorney’s fees to you, or if there is an award, it may not be for all of the fees you incur. Most judges will award “reasonable” attorney’s fees, but what is “reasonable” may not be what you actually spent.

While the appeal is pending, and until it is over, your resident will be paying rent into court escrow. The payment of rent into court escrow creates a “stay of eviction” and allows her to remain in the property while the appeal is pending. Her payments are due every 30 days after the appeal has been filed. Note that this may not coincide when your lease requires rent to be paid. So long as she makes her rent payments to the court in a timely manner, you are not entitled to late fees—even though you are not receiving the rent. By filing motions periodically, you can ask the court to release the escrowed rent money to you. But, if the resident disputes your right to the rent, the court will not likely release it to you. Also, in most counties, you would have to file multiple motions throughout the appeal as the resident deposits more money into escrow. In most cases, landlords do not receive rent until the appeal is over.

So, as you can see, the appeal process is complicated and can take quite a long time. There are a few ways to shorten the appeal process, though potentially. First, the resident must file proof of service of the Notice of Appeal with the court within 10 days after filing the appeal. If she fails to do this, you can have the appeal stricken. This ends the appeal, “revives” the MDJ judgment, and allows you to go back to your Magisterial District Judge and have an Order for Possession issued.

Second, if the resident does not file an answer to your complaint, you can enter a default judgment. This ends the appeal and allows you to proceed with a writ of possession through the county sheriff’s office.

Third, if the resident does not pay rent into court escrow, you can have the stay of eviction terminated. This would allow you to go back to your Magisterial District Judge and have an Order for Possession issued. The court does not notify you when the resident deposits rent, so you must monitor it monthly to see if she misses a payment.

Absent one of these things, you must proceed through the appeal. In light of this onerous process, I always recommend that landlords consider whether a settlement makes sense after an appeal has been filed. In many cases, residents file appeals simply to buy time to allow them to find a place to move. In these cases, we can sometimes agree to enter judgment in the appeal to end it in exchange for a short period of occupancy. In these settlements, the landlords get a date certain by which the resident will be gone and avoid the expense and delay of the appeal, and the resident gets additional time to find a new place to live. While some cases may not be appropriate for settlement, many are, and landlords should set aside the emotion of the case and evaluate, from a business perspective, whether it makes sense to settle.