Rule 903. Time for Appeal.
(a) General rule. Except as otherwise prescribed by this rule, the notice of appeal required by Rule 902 (manner of taking appeal) shall be filed within 30 days after the entry of the order from which the appeal is taken.
(b) Cross appeals. Except as otherwise prescribed in subdivision (c) of this rule, if a timely notice of appeal is filed by a party, any other party may file a notice of appeal within 14 days of the date on which the first notice of appeal was served, or within the time otherwise prescribed by this rule, whichever period last expires.
(c) Special provisions. Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule:
(1) An appeal from any of the following orders shall be taken within ten days after the entry of the order from which the appeal is taken:
(i) An order changing venue or venire in a criminal proceeding. See Rule 311(a)(3) (change of criminal venue or venire).
(ii) An order in any matter arising under the Pennsylvania Election Code.
(iii) An order in any matter arising under the Local Government Unit Debt Act or any similar statute relating to the authorization of public debt.
(2) Where an election has been filed under Rule 311(b) (order sustaining venue or personal or in rem jurisdiction), the notice of appeal shall be filed within 30 days after the filing of the election.
(3) In a criminal case in which no post-sentence motion has been filed, the notice of appeal shall be filed within 30 days of the imposition of the judgment of sentence in open court.
Comment: 42 Pa.C.S. § 5571(a) (appeals generally) provides that the time for filing an appeal, a petition for allowance of appeal, a petition for permission to appeal or a petition for review or a quasi-judicial order, in the Supreme Court, the Superior Court or the Commonwealth Court shall be governed by general rules and that no other provision of 42 Pa.C.S. Ch. 55D shall be applicable to such matters. In order to prevent inadvertent legislative creation of nonuniform appeal times, 42 Pa.C.S. § 1722(c) (time limitations) expressly authorizes the suspension by general rule of nonuniform statutory appeal times. See also 42 Pa.C.S. § 5501(a) (scope of chapter), which makes Chapter 55 (limitation of time) of the Judicial Code subordinate to any other statute prescribing a different time in the case of an action or proceeding, but which does not so provide in the case of an appeal.
Thus, on both a statutory and constitutional basis, this rule supersedes all inconsistent statutory provisions prescribing times for appeal.
As to subdivision (b), compare 42 Pa.C.S. § 5571(f) (cross appeals).
A party filing a cross appeal pursuant to subdivision (b) should identify it as a cross appeal in the notice of appeal to assure that the prothonotary will process the cross appeal with the initial appeal. See also Rule 511 (cross appeals), Rule 2113 (reply brief), Rule 2136 (briefs in cases involving cross appeals), Rule 2185 (service and filing of briefs) and Rule 2322 (cross and separate appeals).
In Re Petition of the Board of School Directors of the Hampton Township School District, 688 A.2d 279 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997), the Commonwealth Court panel held that Rule 903(b) does not extend the appeal period for any other party to file an appeal unless the party is ‘‘adverse.’’ Under the 2002 amendment to Rule 511, the requirement that a party be adverse in order to file a cross appeal is eliminated. Once a notice of appeal is filed by one party, any other party may file a cross appeal within fourteen days.
Rule of Appellate Procedure 107 incorporates by reference the rules of construction in the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration, Pa.R.J.A. 104—115. See Pa.R.J.A. 107(a)-(b) relating to computation of time for the rule of construction relating to (1) the exclusion of the first day and inclusion of the last day of a time period and (2) the omission of the last day of a time period which falls on Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday.
See Rule 108 (date of entry of orders) and Explanatory Comment—2007 thereto, Rule 301(a)(1) and (2) (entry upon docket below), and Pa.R.Crim.P. 462, 720, and 721 governing criminal appeals.
Explanatory Comment—2001 The 2001 amendment to Subdivision (c) clarifies that the appeal period for appealing from orders in civil cases sustaining venue or personal or in rem jurisdiction runs from the date of the election under Pa.R.A.P. 311(b)(1), not the date of the original order. The 2000 amendment extends the appeal period following such an election from ten days to thirty days to conform the appeal period for civil orders changing venue pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 311(c).
The portion of the Note suggesting the necessity of taking an appeal within the 20 day pleading period is misleading and is deleted. For this reason, the bracketed material of the Note is deleted.
Explanatory Comment—2002 See Comment following Pa.R.A.P., Rule 511.
(Editor’s Note: The following order was published at 54 Pa.B. 5611 (September 7, 2024):
Temporary Modification and Suspension of the Rules of Appellate Procedure and Judicial Administration for Appeals Arising under the Pennsylvania Election Code; No. 622 Judicial Administration Docket
Order
Per Curiam
And Now, this 27th day of August, 2024, upon consideration of the requirements of the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, see 3 U.S.C. § 5, to expedite appeals in matters arising under the Pennsylvania Election Code with respect to the November 5, 2024 General Election, and pursuant to Article V, Section 10 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, it is Ordered as follows:
Rule 903(c)(1)(ii) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure, which provides for a 10-day appeal period from an order in any matter arising under the Pennsylvania Election Code, is Temporarily Modified to provide for a 3-day appeal period; further, Pa.R.A.P. 1113(c)(1), which provides for a 10-day period for filing a petition for allowance of appeal from an order in any matter arising under the Pennsylvania Election Code, is Temporarily Modified to provide for a 3-day period. All cross-appeals and cross-petitions for allowance of appeal must also be filed within 3 days of the challenged order.
Additionally, Pa.R.A.P. 107 and Pa.R.J.A. 107 are Temporarily Suspended to the extent they specify that weekends and holidays are to be excluded in calculating the above 3-day periods.
Answers to jurisdictional statements and petitions for allowance of appeal, and separate motions to quash or dismiss appeals, will not be received in these matters. Any objection to the propriety of the appeal, including questions surrounding the appellate court’s jurisdiction, are to be raised in the appellees’ merits briefs.
In appeals that fall within the purview of this order, appellants shall file briefs within 24 hours of the filing their notice of appeal and, where applicable, jurisdictional statement. Appellees’ briefs are due within 24 hours of the filing of appellants’ briefs. Further, Pa.R.A.P. 2113 (regarding reply briefs) is Temporarily Suspended in these matters; no reply briefs will be permitted absent order of court.
All filings related to matters encompassed by this order shall be filed electronically when counsel or the litigants have a PACFile account. Otherwise, counsel or the litigants shall contact the relevant filing office to make alternative arrangements to ensure that the filing office receives the submissions by the applicable deadline.
Pa.R.A.P. 1931(a) and (c) (regarding the deadline for transmittal of the record when complete) are Temporarily Suspended in matters subject to this order, and the record shall be transferred as soon as practicable. The lower court may transmit partially completed records in the interest of facilitating prompt resolution of any appeal in these matters.
Applications for reconsideration or reargument will not be received on matters falling under this order.
Any court deciding a matter that arises under the Pennsylvania Election Code in relation to the November 5, 2024 General Election shall append a copy of this order to its decision.
This order shall be effective August 29, 2024, and shall apply to appeals or petitions for allowance of appeal filed from orders entered after that date.
This order shall remain in effect pending further order of this Court.
Source The provisions of this Rule 903 amended through December 10, 1986, effective January 31, 1987, and shall govern all matters thereafter commenced, and insofar as just and practicable, matters then pending, 16 Pa.B. 4951; amended April 26, 2001, effective July 1, 2001, 31 Pa.B. 2469; amended October 18, 2002, effective December 2, 2002, 32 Pa.B. 5402; amended January 18, 2007, effective August 1, 2007, 37 Pa.B. 521; amended April 9, 2012, effective in 30 days, 42 Pa.B. 2269; amended November 3, 2023, effective January 1, 2024, 53 Pa.B. 7132. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (414633) to (414634).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.
This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
