Commonwealth v. Boyd

50 Pa. D. & C.2d 391, 1970 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 102
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County
DecidedOctober 7, 1970
Docketno. 16 of 1970
StatusPublished

This text of 50 Pa. D. & C.2d 391 (Commonwealth v. Boyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Boyd, 50 Pa. D. & C.2d 391, 1970 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 102 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1970).

Opinion

LYON, J.,

Defendant stands accused of having violated the Uniform Firearms Act of June 24, 1934, P. L. 872, as amended. In this proceeding, he seeks to suppress as evidence the gun found in his automobile as the result of a search conducted by State Police Officer Howard E. Funk.

The failure to answer an allegation in a pretrial application for relief “shall be deemed an admission of the well pleaded facts averred in the application”: Pa. R. Crim. P. 308. But the rule is not selfexecuting. The undenied, well-pleaded facts are not deemed to be judicial admissions until they are offered and received into evidence at the hearing. Cf. Lapayowker v. Lincoln College Preparatory School, 386 Pa. 167, 125 A. 2d 451 (1956); Mullen v. The Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinatti, Ohio, 182 Pa. 150, 37 Atl. 988 (1897); Smith v. Lit Brothers, 174 Pa. Superior Ct. 102, 100 A. 2d 390 (1953); Goldstein v. Goldstein, 152 Pa. Superior Ct. 566, 33 A. 2d 82 (1943).

“Judicial admissions are not evidence at all, but are formal admissions in the pleadings, . . . oral or written, by a party or his counsel which have the effect of withdrawing a fact from issue and dispensing wholly with the need for proof of the fact. Thus the judicial admission, unless it should be allowed by the court to be withdrawn, is conclusive, . . .”: McCormick on Evidence, page 504, sec. 239; 4 Wigmore on Evidence, (3rd Ed.) §1051(1).

Judicial admissions by the Commonwealth at the hearing on the motion to suppress in the instant case [393]*393established the following: that on January 3, 1970, defendant, Brian H. Boyd, was arrested and taken into custody by the New Castle City Pohce at or near the C & A Hall, Frew Mill fioad, Third Ward, New Castle, Pa.; that the New Castle City Pohce there arrested Brian H. Boyd and his wife without a warrant, for an alleged misdemeanor which was not committed in their presence, namely, assault and battery; that at the time of the arrest the said defendant and his wife were in defendant’s automobile; that the pohce of the City of New Castle in taking defendant and his wife into custody took them to the City Pohce Station and there obtained information from defendant and his wife without first advising them of their respective constitutional rights; that there was obtained from the wife information that a 38-caliber revolver was in defendant’s car; that she had seen the revolver and that defendant had threatened to use it upon himself; and that the said city pohce immediately conveyed this information to State Pohce Officer Howard E. Funk who obtained a warrant for the search of defendant’s car where the gun was found. We are bound in this opinion to accept the judicial admission that defendant was married at this time even though some of the evidence at the hearing would tend to prove that the marriage occurred at a later date.

It appears from the record that Trooper Funk had been alerted earlier by pohce radio of a possible abduction of Mrs. Boyd, wife of defendant. She related to Trooper Funk at the New Castle City Pohce Department that she was employed at the Photo-Mat Booth in Shenango Township, Lawrence County, Pa.; that on the day in question defendant came to her place of employment; that he appeared to her to be intoxicated and stated that he had taken seven acid pills; that at about the same time he displayed a [394]*394gun, pointed it to his head and threatened to take his own life unless she left her employment to go with him in the automobile; that when she refused defendant’s request he laid down on the seat of his automobile and appeared to her to be in the throes of convulsions; that she ran to the automobile to offer her assistance to defendant who had faked the convulsions; and that defendant then dragged her into the automobile and drove off.

In Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, decided June 22, 1970, the United States Supreme Court held that the validity of an arrest is not necessarily determinative of the right to search a car if there is probable cause to make the search; that since it is probable cause which justifies the search of an automobile, the search may be made either at the place of the arrest of the occupants or at the station house; that the probable cause is no less after the automobile is moved; and that where probable cause exists, the police may search the entire vehicle without a warrant. Defendant does not contend in his brief that the facts and information supplied by his wife to State Police Officer Funk did not constitute probable cause for the search of his vehicle.

His contention is that the search was illegal for two other reasons; namely, (1) the probable cause justifying the search of defendant’s automobile was a fruit of an illegal arrest of defendant’s wife, and (2) the search was bottomed upon privileged information supplied by the wife of defendant. We disagree.

I.

Granted the illegality of the arrest of defendant’s wife, and the statements made by her thereafter, nevertheless, the violation of her constitutional rights gives defendant no standing to raise the objection. [395]*395In the case of Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U. S. 471, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441, 83 S. Ct. 407 (1963), the officers had hearsay information only and did not know whether the informant was reliable since they had not dealt with him before. Nevertheless, on the basis of this information, an officer knocked at “A’s” door and when “A” attempted to flee arrested him. “A” then told the officer that “B” had heroin. On the basis of this information, the officers went to “B’s” residence where “B” turned over the heroin to them. “B” told the officers he had gotten it from both “A” and “C”. “C” was then arrested because of the information received from “B”. The court held that the heroin seized at “B’s” residence was inadmissible against “A”, but not with respect to “C”. The court pointed out that the exclusion of the narcotics as to “A” was required solely by their tainted relationship to the information unlawfully obtained from “A” by reason of his illegal arrest, and not by any official impropriety connected with the surrender of narcotics by “B”; and that the seizure of the heroin invaded no right of privacy of the person or premises which would entitle “C” to object to its use at trial. In Alderman v. United States 394 U. S. 165, 22 L. Ed. 2d 176, 89 S. Ct. 961, rehearing denied, 394 U. S. 939, 22 L. Ed. 2d 475, 89 S. Ct. 1177 (1969), the United States Supreme Court again cited the general rule that fourth amendment rights are personal rights which, like some other constitutional rights, may not be vicariously asserted; and that no rights of the victim of an illegal search are at stake when the evidence is offered against some other party. The same legal principle applies also to fifth and sixth amendment rights as promulgated by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966). Cf. People v. Varnum, 66 Cal. 2d 808, 59 Cal. Rptr. 108, 427 P. 2d 772 (1967).

[396]*396It is true, as defendant contends, that as the owner of the vehicle he has standing to object to an illegal search of it in violation of his fourth amendment rights.

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Related

Wong Sun v. United States
371 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
McCray v. Illinois
386 U.S. 300 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Alderman v. United States
394 U.S. 165 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Chambers v. Maroney
399 U.S. 42 (Supreme Court, 1970)
People v. Varnum
427 P.2d 772 (California Supreme Court, 1967)
Lapayowker v. Lincoln College Preparatory School
125 A.2d 451 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1956)
Kine v. Forman
209 A.2d 1 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1965)
Commonwealth v. Wilkes
199 A.2d 411 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1964)
Goldstein v. Goldstein (No. 1)
33 A.2d 82 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1943)
Seitz v. Seitz
32 A. 578 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1895)
Mullen v. Union Central Life Insurance
37 A. 988 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1897)
Commonwealth ex rel. Cabey v. Rundle
248 A.2d 197 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
Smith v. Lit Bros.
100 A.2d 390 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 Pa. D. & C.2d 391, 1970 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-boyd-pactcompllawren-1970.