Commonwealth v. Irvin

41 Pa. D. & C.2d 301, 1966 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 188
CourtFranklin County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedOctober 11, 1966
Docketno. 404 of 1965
StatusPublished

This text of 41 Pa. D. & C.2d 301 (Commonwealth v. Irvin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Franklin County Court of Quarter Sessions primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Irvin, 41 Pa. D. & C.2d 301, 1966 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 188 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1966).

Opinion

Eppinger, P. J.,

Defendant was operating a motor vehicle which was involved in an accident. After the accident, he appeared to several observers to be under the influence of intoxicating liquor. From their testimony alone, the jury could have found defendant guilty of the offense.

When the officer had completed his investigation at the scene, he took defendant into cusody, and while they were going to the office of the justice of the peace, the officer asked him if he would go to the hospital for a blood test. Defendant replied: “No”.

No Objection was made to the testimony by defendant’s counsel until the officer’s testimony on direct examination was concluded. The District Attorney then turned the witness over to the defense for cross-[302]*302examination. At that point, defendant’s counsel objected to the question and answer concerning the officer’s request for a blood sample and asked to have the evidence stricken. The court overruled the objection.

Later in the crossexamination, the defense attorney asked the officer whether he had asked defendant to take any tests other than the blood test. The officer replied that he did not ask for any tests, but that he did ask for a specimen of urine. At this point, the District Attorney objected unless defendant was prepared to concede the results of the test. That objection was overruled. The defense attorney pursued the matter with this colloquy:

“Q. Why did you ask him for a sample of urine?

“A. To further establish my opinion.

“Q. For the purpose of having chemical tests run on the urine to determine whether or not he was intoxicated?

“A. Yes, sir.

“Q. This is a second test, you first asked him to make a blood test which he refused, but he went along with the urine test, is that correct?

“A. Right”.

Undoubtedly, this was for the purpose of showing that while defendant had refused to cooperate in giving a blood sample, he did give a urine specimen. The unfortunate part of the question was that in asking it, defendant virtually pressed the District Attorney into proving what was done with the specimen.

This led to pages of testimony concerning the taking of the specimen, the results of the test and the validity of any urine test. After it was all in, the court ordered it stricken and instructed the jury to disregard it because the evidence failed to trace the specimen from the moment the specimen was taken until the test was made.

After a verdict of guilty, defendant’s motion for a [303]*303new trial is based on two points: first, that the court erred in admitting the testimony by the prosecuting officer that defendant had refused to take a blood test, and second, that the court erred in hearing the evidence of the urine alcohol test and then ruling it was inadmissible, even though the court instructed the jury to disregard it.

In this connection, the court, President Judge Chauncey M. Depuy presiding, instructed the jury as follows:

“Members of the jury, listen carefully, because there is a problem and (sic) a scientific test, in taking a sample, whether it is a sample of urine or a sample of blood, there has to be a tracing from the point the sample is taken, to the laboratory, and through the laboratory, every moment of the day and night, as to who had them in their custody, that nobody tampered with them.

“This is a serious difficulty in every case where scientific laboratory tests are offered in evidence. We have just concluded on the whole evidence here that we cannot admit the test and are ordering it stricken from the record, and all evidence regarding it is stricken from the record, regarding the taking of the sample, its transmission to the hospital, and the procedure whereby it was tested at the hospital, on the grounds that it isn’t specific enough to make certain that foreign matters of any sort were not involved in the test, so it is better to disregard it entirely.

“So we are going to proceed with the case on the basis of the other evidence, the same as though there were no taking of evidence about the urine test. And then you have the other evidence that you have heard and will hear that the people testified to and will testify to as to what happened at that time, the same as in so many of the cases where the charge is operating under the influence, based upon observation of competent [304]*304citizens who were in or about the scene or elsewhere, the State Police officer and so forth. You will have to decide the case on that basis and ignore the question of the urine sample and the testing, disregard all of that latter evidence”.

The court also instructed the jury during the charge: “Now, the urine test we have ordered stricken from the evidence and you folks will disregard it”.

Statutory sanction has been given in Pennsylvania only to the taking of chemical tests of breath: Act of July 28, 1961, P. L. 918, 75 PS §624.1. In the taking of the breath sample, the operator’s consent is required. This act does not limit testimony on intoxication to “breath tests”, however. It was held in Commonwealth v. Tanchyn, 200 Pa. Superior Ct. 148, 188 A. 2d 824, cert. denied 84 S. Ct. 138, 375 U. S. 866, 11 L. Ed. 2d 92, that blood tests showing alcoholic content of a motorists’ blood was other evidence and was not ex-cludable under this act.

But in a group of cases decided under similar acts, the appellate courts of other jurisdictions have held that since the operator’s consent is required, his refusal to take a sobriety test may not be shown as constituting an admission of guilt: State v. Severson, 75 N. W. 2d 316 (N. Dak.); Stuart v. District of Columbia, 157 A. 2d 294; People v. Stratton, 143 N. Y. S. 2d 362.

We are asked to conclude that because Pennsylvania’s breath test requires consent, consent must also be given for the taking of blood. We cannot do this.

Some jurisdictions, in attempting to overcome what was thought might be an invasion of constitutional rights, adopted what are called implied consent statutes. Under these acts, a person is not required to consent, but if he does not, his license can be revoked after due notice and hearing on the basis of his refusal. See Walton v. City of Roanoke, 204 Va. 678, 133 [305]*305S. E. 2d 315; Finocchairo v. Kelly, 11 N. Y. 2d 58, 226 N. Y. S. 2d 403, 181 N. E. 2d 427, cert. denied 370 U. S. 912.

Apparently, no existing State statute now requires a motorist to submit to any tests. But since the trial of this case, the United States Supreme Court has decided the case of Schmerber v. State of California, 384 U. S. 757, 86 S. Ct. 1826 (1966). In that case, a physician withdrew, at the direction of a police officer, a blood sample from a person accused of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and the results of that test were admitted into evidence in the case.

The Supreme Court held that there was no violation of the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, nor was there an unlawful search and seizure. Where the blood was taken at a hospital under proper conditions, defendant cannot complain, the Supreme Court held.

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Related

Schmerber v. California
384 U.S. 757 (Supreme Court, 1966)
State v. Severson
75 N.W.2d 316 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1956)
Walton v. City of Roanoke
133 S.E.2d 315 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1963)
Stuart v. District of Columbia
157 A.2d 294 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1960)
Commonwealth v. Tanchyn
188 A.2d 824 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1963)
Keilbach v. Metropolitan Life Insurance
43 A.2d 652 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1945)
Finocchairo v. Kelly
181 N.E.2d 427 (New York Court of Appeals, 1962)
Brotzman v. Riehl
13 A. 483 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1888)
Supplee v. Timothy
16 A. 864 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1889)
Keil v. Chartiers V. Gas Co.
19 A. 78 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1890)
Cadwallader v. Brodie
8 Sadler 609 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1888)

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Bluebook (online)
41 Pa. D. & C.2d 301, 1966 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-irvin-paqtrsessfrankl-1966.