Commonwealth v. Gleason

785 A.2d 983, 567 Pa. 111, 2001 Pa. LEXIS 2565
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 30, 2001
Docket75 MAP 2000
StatusPublished
Cited by95 cases

This text of 785 A.2d 983 (Commonwealth v. Gleason) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme 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 v. Gleason, 785 A.2d 983, 567 Pa. 111, 2001 Pa. LEXIS 2565 (Pa. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION

ZAPPALA, Justice.

We granted allowance of appeal in this case to determine whether an arresting officer possesses reasonable and articu-lable grounds to believe that a licensee violated a provision of the Vehicle Code, warranting the stop of the licensee’s car, based upon his observations that the licensee’s vehicle crossed the berm line by six to eight inches on two occasions' for a period of a second or two over a distance of approximately one quarter of a mile. The Superior'Court held that under these circumstances, an arresting officer is justified in stopping the licensee. ’

[113]*113As a threshold matter, the Commonwealth argues that this Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain Appellant’s petition for allowance of appeal from the Superior Court’s order reversing the trial court’s grant of his pre-trial motion to suppress. For the reasons that follow, we hold that this Court does, in fact, have jurisdiction to entertain discretionary appeals from such orders.

In Commonwealth v. Rosario, 538 Pa. 400, 648 A.2d 1172 (1994), a plurality decision of this Court, we addressed the question of whether the Superior Court had jurisdiction to entertain an appeal as of right from an order of the common pleas court reversing the Municipal Court of Philadelphia’s order granting defendant Rosario’s suppression motion. We held that the Superior Court lacked jurisdiction under these facts since such an appeal would be interlocutory, and thus, an appeal as of right was unwarranted. We rejected Rosario’s assertion that a footnote found in this Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Baker, 518 Pa. 145, 541 A.2d 1381 (1988), supported his claim that he was entitled to file an appeal as of right from the order reversing the grant of suppress. In Baker, unlike Rosario, the Superior Court, as here, had reversed an order of the common pleas court granting a suppression motion and discretionary appeal by way of a petition for allowance of appeal was filed with this Court. In discussing whether we lacked jurisdiction to entertain discretionary review, we stated the following:

We find no merit in the Commonwealth’s contention that an appeal taken from appellate reversal of a suppression order is interlocutory and that the instant appeal should therefore be quashed. Appeals taken by defendants following appellate reversals of orders suppressing evidence are clearly cognizable by this Court. See Commonwealth v. Hamlin, 503 Pa. 210, 469 A.2d 137 (1983); Commonwealth v. Bosurgi, 411 Pa. 56, 190 A.2d 304 (1963).

Baker, 541 A.2d at 1382, n. 1.

In rejecting Rosario’s contention that this footnote afforded him the avenue to appeal as of right to the Superior Court, Justice Castille, joined by then Justice, now Chief Justice, [114]*114Flaherty and Justice Papadakos, overruled Baker to the “extent this language ... suggests that appellate reversals of suppression orders are not interlocutory....” He went on to note that

[w]hile there may be instances in which an appellate court, in exercise of its discretionary powers, may entertain a challenge to the lower court’s reversal of a suppression order if such a claim were properly raised before it in a petition for allowance of appeal, such is not the case here. See e.g. Pa.R.A.P. 1114. Here, a petition for allowance of appeal was not filed.

Rosario, 648 A.2d at 1175.

Likewise, the concurring opinion authored by Justice Mon-temuro and joined by then Chief Justice Nix, this author and Justice Cappy, distinguished between appeals as of right, as sought by Rosario, and requests for discretionary review, which was the case in Baker. The concurring opinion advocated overruling Baker in a more limited fashion than in the lead opinion, noting that it would do so to the extent that Baker “suggests that appellate reversals of suppression orders are not interlocutory and [are] appealable as a matter of right to the Superior Court in cases such as [Rosario].” Id. at 1176. The concurrence emphasized that it “[did] not believe that Baker should be overruled so as to suggest that all appellate reversals of suppression orders are interlocutory, thus precluding this Court from its longstanding practice of reviewing such orders where special or important reasons are presented.” Id.

Thus, based upon the foregoing, it is clear that a majority of this Court is of the view that we may entertain discretionary review by way of a petition for allowance of appeal in a case where the Superior Court has reversed a lower court order granting suppression. As we conclude that we have jurisdiction to entertain Appellant’s appeal, we now turn to the facts of this case.1

[115]*115On July 21, 1998, in the early morning hours, Officer Guy Rosato of the Westtown East Goshen Police Department was on patrol traveling westbound on the West Chester Pike, a/k/a Route 3, in East Goshen Township. The West Chester Pike is a four lane divided highway. Officer Rosato noticed a gray Mazda approximately eight to ten car lengths in front of him. He followed the vehicle and observed it cross the solid fog line on two or three occasions over a distance of approximately one quarter mile.2 During the period that Officer Rosato was following the vehicle, there were no other vehicles on the roadway. Nevertheless, Officer Rosato decided to investigate as to the reason for this behavior.

Upon stopping Appellant, Officer Rosato observed signs of intoxication and performed field sobriety tests, which Appellant failed. Appellant was placed under arrest and refused to submit to blood alcohol testing. Officer Rosato then searched Appellant and his vehicle and recovered, among other things, a suspended driver’s license, an uncapped syringe, and a small amount of cocaine. Appellant was charged with driving under [116]*116the influence of alcohol, driving with a suspended license, careless driving, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Appellant subsequently filed a motion to suppress all of the physical evidence seized by Officer Rosato based upon the assertion that the seizure stemmed from an illegal stop of his vehicle. The trial court granted Appellant’s suppression motion concluding that Officer Rosato was not justified in stopping Appellant simply because he observed Appellant swerve onto the berm of the roadway two or three times. The court noted:

Given the early morning hour, the fact that there was no other traffic on the roadway and the rather momentary nature of defendant’s vehicle crossing the fog line on two perhaps three occasions, the officer erred in believing he had justification to stop defendant’s vehicle. The observations of Office [sic] Rosato do not warrant a stop on any cognizable legal theory.

Trial court opinion at 2 n. 1.

The Superior Court, 754 A.2d 17, in an unpublished decision with one panel member dissenting, reversed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
785 A.2d 983, 567 Pa. 111, 2001 Pa. LEXIS 2565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-gleason-pa-2001.