A panel of the Commonwealth Court held that a county could
proceed with a declaratory judgment action seeking to establish
that online reservation companies are subject to the county's
hotel tax. County of Lawrence v. Hotels.com LP, No. 2541 C.D. 2010
(Pa. Commw., Aug. 3, 2011). The court held that because the action
was for a declaratory judgment, the rule of exhaustion of
administrative remedies did not apply. See 42 Pa. C.S. §§
7541(b), (c)(2). The court stated that a court was in the best
position to resolve the question whether the enabling statute and
county ordinance applied to online reservation companies. The court
did not cite or discuss Cherry v. City of Philadelphia, 692 A. 2d
1082 (Pa. 1997), or City of Philadelphia v. Hotels. com, July Term
2005, No. 860 (Phila. Com. Pleas May 25, 2006), which held
respectively that a taxpayer and the City of Philadelphia could not
proceed directly to court for a ruling on the application of tax
statutes, but must proceed
