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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 first before the City's Tax Review Board.
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