Bergen v. Commonwealth, Department of Transportation

785 A.2d 157, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 773
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided October 19, 2001·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

JIULIANTE, Senior Judge.

The Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver’s Licensing (Department) appeals from the March 28, 2001 order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County (trial court) that sustained the statutory appeal of Brian Kevin Bergen (Licensee) from the Department’s one-year suspension of Licensee’s operating privilege imposed pursuant to the Driver’s License Compact (Compact) (suspension of Pennsylvania operating privilege following a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol or “substantially similar” offense in a state which is a party to the Compact).1 The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in ruling that a report of conviction submitted to the Department pur[159] suant to the Compact had to be certified by the submitting state.2 For the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand.

By official notice, dated and mailed September 27, 2000, the Department notified Licensee that it was suspending his operating privilege for one year due to his September 27, 1999 conviction in New Jersey for driving under the influence of liquor or drugs on July 19, 1999 in violation of N.J.S.A. § 39:4 50(a). On October 17, 2000, Licensee filed a timely appeal of the suspension with the trial court.

On March 19, 2001, the trial court conducted a de novo hearing at which time the Department offered into evidence Commonwealth’s Exhibit C 1 in an attempt to establish grounds for its one-year suspension of Licensee’s operating privilege. Exhibit C-l was a packet of documents signed and sealed by the Secretary of Transportation and the Director of Driver Licensing and certified in accordance with Sections 6103 and 6109 of the Judicial Code3 and Sections 1516(b) and 1550(d)(1) of the Vehicle Code.4

Licensee objected to the admission of Exhibit C 1, arguing that the report of conviction the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles submitted to the Department had to be certified in accordance with Section 1532(b)(3) of the Vehicle Code.5 After further argument, the trial court took the matter under advisement.

Ultimately, the trial court entered a March 28, 2001 order sustaining Licensee’s statutory appeal. In a May 14, 2001 opinion in support of its order, the trial court determined that the Department had to receive a certified record of the New Jersey conviction from that state in order to suspend Licensee’s operating privilege in Pennsylvania. The Department’s timely appeal to this Court is now before us.

I

The Department argues that the trial court erred in determining that it had to offer into evidence a record of Licensee’s New Jersey conviction certified by someone in New Jersey. It contends that the proffered Exhibit C-l was sufficient to satisfy its prima facie case. That exhibit contained (1) a copy of the Department’s official notice of suspension; (2) a copy of the notice of Licensee’s conviction sent to the Department by the licensing authority of New Jersey; and (3) copies of documents reflecting Licensee’s driving history.

In support of the sufficiency of Exhibit C-l, the Department notes that the Director of the Bureau of Driver Licensing certified each of the documents as a “full, true and correct certified photostatic copy.” (R.R. 40a.) In addition, the Secretary of Transportation certified that the Director “is the legal custodian of the Driver License records of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation” and that “she has legal custody of the original or microfilm records which are reproduced in the attached certification.” (Id.)

Sections 6103(a) and 6109(b) of the Judicial Code, two of the statutory sections cited on the face of Exhibit C-l, provide as follows:

§ 6103. Proof of Official records
(a) General rule. — An official record kept within this Commonwealth by any [160] ... government unit, or an entry therein, when admissible for any purpose, may be evidenced by an official publication thereof or by a copy attested by the officer having the legal custody of the record, or by his deputy, and accompanied by a certificate that the officer has the custody. The certificate may be made by any public officer having a seal of office and having official duties with respect to the government unit in which the record is kept, authenticated by the seal of his office....
§ 6109. Photographic copies of business and public records
(b) General rule. — If any ... department or agency of government, in the regular course of business or activity, has kept or recorded any memorandum, writing, entry, print, representation, or combination thereof, of any act, transaction, occurrence or event, and in the regular course of business has caused any or all of the same to be recorded, copied or reproduced by any ... process which accurately reproduces or forms a durable medium for so reproducing the original, the original may be destroyed, in the regular course of business, unless its preservation is required by law.... Such reproduction, when satisfactorily identified, is as admissible in evidence as the original itself in any judicial or administrative proceeding, whether the original is in existence or not....

42 Pa.C.S. §§ 6103(a) and 6109(b).

Section 1550(d)(1) of the Vehicle Code covers the situation where the Department receives documents from another state:

(d) Out of State Documentation.—
(1) In any proceeding under this section, documents received by the department from the courts or administrative bodies of other states ... shall be admissible into evidence to support the department’s case. In addition, the department may treat the received documents as documents of the department and use any of the methods of storage permitted under the provisions of 42 Pa.C.S. § 6109 (relating to photographic copies of business and public records) and may reproduce such documents in accordance with the provisions of 42 Pa. C.S. § 6103 (relating to proof of official records). In addition, if the department receives information from courts or administrative bodies of other states ... by means of electronic transmission, it may certify that it has received the information by means of electronic transmission and that certification shall be prima facie proof of the adjudication and facts contained in such an electronic transmission.

75 Pa.C.S. § 1550(d)(1) (emphasis added).

The Department maintains that it prepared the notice of suspension it sent to Licensee and the records reflecting his driving history in the normal course of business. 42 Pa.C.S. § 6109. Further, it contends that the licensing authority of New Jersey properly submitted to the Department the report of Licensee’s conviction pursuant to Article III of the Compact and N.J.S.A. § 39:5D-3. Article III provides as follows:

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Bergen v. Commonwealth, Department of Transportation, 785 A.2d 157, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 773 (Pa. Ct. App. 2001).

785 A.2d 157 (Bergen v. Commonwealth, Department of Transportation) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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