The briefs have been filed in the appeal of Wheatland residents who want to leave Farrell Area School District, and the parties are waiting for a date for oral arguments before Commonwealth Court.

According to the court's Web site, arguments are tentatively set for February.

Under the state School Code, an area can leave one district and join another under a process that starts with a petition being filed in Common Pleas Court showing that 51 percent of the taxable inhabitants of the area say they want the change.

The court initially only deals with the procedural matters of whether the petition was properly filed and contained the necessary information.

While 268 Wheatland residents signed the petition, Judge Francis J. Fornelli required that the signers come into court and affirm that they signed it and still want the borough to leave Farrell for West Middlesex Area School District.

That ruling is one of two issues the petitioners, represented by Joann M. Jofery, appealed over.

After two days of depositions and court testimony, only 71 people affirmed their interest, and Ms. Jofery agreed that was far short of the number she needed. Fornelli dismissed the case.

In his brief to Commonwealth Court, Fornelli said it is "a basic and fundamental law" that someone who files suit has the burden to establish their right for court action.

To make the school district prove that the petition signatures were invalid would set a costly precedent, he said.

"... (A)ny number of individuals, no matter how few, could file a petition to establish an independent school district and thereby place upon a school district the time and expense of proving ... that 51 percent of the taxable inhabitants are not in favor of the petition," he wrote.

Since the School Code does not outline a process for validating signatures, Fornelli should have used the Municipal Code and Election Code as guides, both of which presume signatures to be valid, Ms. Jofery said.

A 1993 case from Clarion County set a precedent for using the Election and Municipal codes in a secession case, she said.

Ms. Jofery added that Fornelli should have defined what a taxable inhabitant is, although she agreed neither side asked him to do so.

Fornelli said he did give an indication of his definition, that it is a Wheatland resident who pays real estate or earned income taxes to the school district. That "understanding" was never challenged.

All 71 people presented in court were taxable inhabitants, Fornelli said.

School district solicitor James Nevant said the necessity of defining taxable inhabitant became "premature and irrelevant" when Ms. Jofery could come nowhere near the numbers even she said she needed.

Ms. Jofery said there were 463 taxable inhabitants in the borough, requiring 232 signatures on the petition. Nevant believed the numbers to be higher.

Nevant added that the Election and Municipal codes have very different intents than the School Code.

The Election Code is to be interpreted liberally to uphold the rights of candidates to run and voters to choose whomever they see fit, and the Municipal Code outlines a procedure for the examination of petitions presented to city council, Nevant said

Both laws infer a Common Pleas judge has the discretion to make sure all legal requirements are met, he said.

The School Code has no language that signatures should be presumed valid, Nevant said. A school system is a "creature of the Legislature" and the School Code is to be interpreted to protect and promote the integrity of the public school system, he said.

Ms. Jofery's second appeal concerned Fornelli's assigning of costs to the petitioners.

The School Code states that costs shall be paid by the petitioners or receiving district if a new district is created. That begs the question of what happens when the secession movement is unsuccessful.

"(Fornelli) made it clear from the first conference that the petitioners would pay the costs," Ms. Jofery said, adding he should have considered other options.

Just because the law states that costs in a successful secession movement will be paid by the petitioners or the receiving school district doesn't mean the school district should have to pay in the case of an unsuccessful movement, Nevant said.

If that were the case, disgruntled residents could "foist considerable, even debilitating, costs upon a school district which has become, for whatever reason, the object of their ire," he said.

"... (C)ourt costs follow the verdict," Fornelli said. It would be "illogical" to allow a small number of people to file a petition to leave a school district and have the district saddled with the costs.

Ms. Jofery said she does not know how much the amount of costs at issue is because she has not been billed. She added that the petitioners already have paid for costs such as filing fees, and she is not asking for reimbursement.

Mercer County Prothonotary's Office said the costs in the case are $208.

Ms. Jofery asked the appeals court to define taxable inhabitant and order Fornelli to determine whether the 268 signatures on the petition constitute 51 percent of taxable inhabitants.