Commonwealth ex rel. Southwest Butler County School District v. Smith

424 A.2d 1001, 56 Pa. Commw. 320, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1105
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 27, 1981
DocketAppeal, No. 11 T.D. 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 424 A.2d 1001 (Commonwealth ex rel. Southwest Butler County School District v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth ex rel. Southwest Butler County School District v. Smith, 424 A.2d 1001, 56 Pa. Commw. 320, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1105 (Pa. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge MacPhail,

Clarke Smith (Appellant) his filed this appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Butler [322]*322County imposing sentence of fine and imprisonment for failure to pay taxes pursuant to an ordinance promulgated by the Southwest Butler County School District (District).

The District filed a private criminal complaint against the Appellant alleging failure to file a return and non-payment of taxes1 for the years 1974 through 1977. Appellant was found guilty by the district justice and was ordered to pay the back taxes claimed by the District and costs.

The Appellant filed an Appeal from Summary Criminal Conviction to the Court of Common Pleas and a de novo hearing was held. Appellant was again found guilty.. His judgment of sentence includes a thirty day imprisonment for each year in which the taxes were not paid. He appealed from that judgment to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and that appeal was certified to this Court.

The Appellant contends that he is not liable for the taxes claimed by the District because he is not a resident of the District. Appellant sought to show that he is, in fact, a resident of Lakewood, Ohio.

The Appellant raises the following issues for our review: I) whether Appellant was forced to testify in derogation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; 2) whether the lower court improperly excluded evidence of discriminatory enforcement of the taxing ordinance; 3) whether the lower court erred in failing to transfer this case to the civil docket; 4) whether the lower court erred in finding that the District had met its burden of proof; 5) whether the sentence imposed by the lower court is defective.

[323]*323I

Appellant contends that he was compelled to testify despite his assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination under the Constitution of the Unites States. In the instant case, Appellant was called to testify “as of cross-examination.” Appellant’s counsel objected. The complete colloquy between counsel and the trial judge was as follows:

MISS WELDON: Clarke Smith. I would like to have Mr. Clarke Smith as for cross-examination.
MR. FLACH: Your Honor, it is our understanding this is a criminal proceeding.
THE COURT: It is an appeal from a summary.
MR. FLACH: He does not avail himself as of cross-examination.
THE COURT: Is he pleading the Fifth?
MR. FLACH: He wants to see the evidence presented before him before he testifies.
THE COURT:,You stand and be sworn, sir.

Without further objection, the Appellant was sworn and did testify. Appellant never claimed the privilege for himself. “The privilege of a witness to refuse to testify on the ground that his testimony may incriminate or tend to incriminate him is strictly personal.” 81 Am. Jur. 2d Witnesses §34 (1976); Commonwealth v. Butler, 171 Pa. Superior Ct. 350, 90 A.2d 838 (1952). We conclude that the Appellant waived his constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

II

Appellant sought to introduce testimony that the prosecution of this case by the District constituted discriminatory enforcement of the statute, but his offer to prove that fact was refused by the lower court. [324]*324Clearly, if Appellant could prove discriminatory enforcement, he has the right to be afforded the opportunity to do so. Arbitrary discrimination between persons in similar situations is a denial of due process. Commonwealth v. Winfree, 408 Pa. 128, 182 A.2d 698 (1962).

Within the bounds of the rules of evidence, the. trial judge has broad discretion in making a determination of the relevancy of testimony. Here, even had Appellant been successful in proving that the case against him was instigated by another party, that would not prove discriminatory enforcement. It is only when there is an arbitrary discrimination between persons in similar circumstances that there is a denial of due process of law. In the instant case, there is absolutely no evidence that others who were similarly situated with Appellant were not prosecuted. In fact, the tax collector for the District testified on cross-examination that the names of others who claimed residence outside the District were turned over to the District Justice of the Peace, but that in most cases, those persons were able to exhibit receipts to indicate payment of taxes elsewhere. This the Appellant was unable to do because he paid no taxes in Ohio until after his summary conviction. We conclude that the ruling of the trial judge on the offer of proof was correct.

t — ( HH )■ — I

Appellant contends that the lower court erred in not transferring this matter to the civil docket. Appellant relies on Section 5103(c) of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa. C. S. §5103(c), which provides that:

If an appeal or other matter is taken to, brought in, or transferred to a division of a court to which such matter is not allocated by law, the court shall not quash such appeal or [325]*325dismiss the matter, but shall transfer the record thereof to the proper division of the court, where the appeal or other matter shall be treated as if originally filed in the transferee division on the date first filed in a court or magisterial district.

42 Pa. C. S. §5103(c)

We do not comment on whether this case was properly tried in the criminal division because Appellant has clearly waived the issue. Pa. R.A.P. No. 302.

Appellant himself chose to file this matter as an appeal from a summary criminal conviction and the record shows no motion or request to transfer the matter to the civil docket.2

The definition of division in Section 102 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa. C. S. §102, makes it clear that no issue of subject matter jurisdiction is presented3 so that this issue was waivable. Pa. R.C.P. 1032.

IV

Appellant argues that the lower court erred in finding that Appellant is a resident of the District because the District did not meet its burden of proof. We do not agree.

[326]*326The ordinance adopted by the District imposes an income tax on residents and defines resident as, inter alia, any individual domiciled in the District.

The Local Tax Enabling Act,4 the enabling statute pursuant to which the local tax was promulgated, defines domicile as follows:

The place where one lives and has his permanent home and to which he has the intention of returning whenever he is absent. Actual residence is not . necessarily domicile, for domicile is the fixed place of abode which, in the intention of the taxpayer is permanent • rather than transitory.

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Related

Smith v. Commonwealth ex rel. Southwest Butler County School District
452 A.2d 1135 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
424 A.2d 1001, 56 Pa. Commw. 320, 1981 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-ex-rel-southwest-butler-county-school-district-v-smith-pacommwct-1981.