Commonwealth v. Meckes

39 Pa. D. & C. 413, 1940 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224
CourtMonroe County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedApril 8, 1940
Docketno. 3
StatusPublished

This text of 39 Pa. D. & C. 413 (Commonwealth v. Meckes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Monroe 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. Meckes, 39 Pa. D. & C. 413, 1940 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1940).

Opinion

Shull, P. J.,

This matter comes before the court upon a certiorari directed to J. T. Hauser, a Justice of the Peace of the Borough of Delaware Water Gap, Monroe County, Pa.

The exceptions upon which the certiorari is based are:

“1. The information charges no offense under the Game Laws of Pennsylvania.
“2. The transcript of the justice does not disclose that any offense was' committed by defendants in Monroe County nor within the jurisdiction of the said justice.
“3. The information charges a joint offense against defendants but the record fails to disclose that any such joint offense was proved against them.
“4. It is impossible to ascertain from the transcript which of the defendants, if either, violated the Game Laws.
[414]*414“5. The transcript of the justice discloses no evidence upon which either or both of the defendants could be convicted.
“6. Section 706 of the Game Laws, of which defendants were convicted, is unconstitutional and void in that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and is an unlawful delegation of legislative powers, thereby violating article II, sec. 1, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
“7. The record fails to disclose that the justice found defendants guilty of any offense under the Game Laws and he consequently erred in imposing a fine and costs upon them.
“8. The justice’s transcript is in many other respects defective, irregular, and void as will appear by an examination thereof.”

As to the first exception, which is: “The information charges no offense under the Game Laws of Pennsylvania”; we find that section 706 of The Game Law of June 3,1937, P. L. 1225, provides:

“The possession or control of any big game animal or any portion of such animal shall be prima facie evidence that it was killed unlawfully in this Commonwealth, unless the head is attached in a natural way. Each person in whose possession or under whose control the same may be found, or who may be proven to have had such animal, or part thereof, in possession or under control, shall be liable to the penalty provided in this article for the unlawful killing of such big game, unless such person shall immediately, upon demand made by an officer of the Commonwealth whose duty it is to protect game, produce the head or other satisfactory evidence that the flesh in question, found in his possession or proven to have been under his control, is a part of a big game animal legally killed in the Commonwealth.”

The theory advanced by defendants’ counsel is in a way ingenious though, as we view it, absolutely unsound. Section 706 provides:

[415]*415“The possession or control of any big game animal or of any portion of such animal. . . . Each person in whose possession or under whose control the same may be found ... in possession or under control, shall be liable to the penalty provided in this article for the unlawful killing of such big game. . . .” (Italics supplied.)

Surely, it cannot successfully be contended that this section does not clearly designate something, the doing of which is an offense against the law. Possessing or having under control any part of a big game animal without having attached to it, in a natural way, the head, is the offense provided, and for this offense this section directly provides a penalty. The penalty is provided by reference, it is true, but that is well within the legislative power— many of our acts refer to other sections of the act for the penalty — others have one section which provides penalties for the various offenses prescribed in the body of the act. This is not unusual and, as we view it, fully within the power of the legislature.

Counsel for defendants urges, relative to this section, that “it is merely a statute setting forth a rule of evidence to be followed in the prosecution of violations of the other sections of the Game Laws,” but this position is untenable. The provisions of this section are almost identical with the provisions which were in the act providing against the carrying of concealed deadly weapons, which was enforced prior to the passage of the act relative to firearms now in force.

As to the second and seventh exceptions, to wit: “2. The transcript of the justice does not disclose that any offense was committed by defendants in Monroe County nor within the jurisdiction of the said justice;” “7. The record fails to disclose that the justice found defendants guilty of any offense under the Game Laws and he consequently erred in imposing a fine and costs upon them;” these also are based upon unsound propositions. The test is not the transcript of the justice’s docket, but the entire record. The information clearly sets forth that the al[416]*416leged offense was committed in the Township of Eldred, County of Monroe, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This information is before us and is attached to the transcript of the justice of the peace and is a part of the record, and this is sufficient. See Commonwealth v. Dukehart, 17 Pa. Superior Ct. 74, and Commonwealth v. Tryman, 62 Pa. Superior Ct. 241.

As to the third, fourth, and fifth exceptions to this record, as we view it, there is evidence set forth in this transcript of the justice’s docket under which it readily could be concluded that defendants jointly had control of the hide of this deer, and that the head was not attached in a natural way. The hide is a part of the deer. We feel it is sufficient to sustain the record of the justice of the peace.

As to the sixth exception, that section 706 of the Act of 1937, as amended by the Act of 1939, is unconstitutional, and urging that it is unconstitutional for the same reason that this court held section 706 of The Game Law of May 24, 1923, P. L. 359, to be unconstitutional in the case of Commonwealth v. Madison, 16 D. & C. 824, we feel this case is not in point. On the other hand, the Commonwealth urges that it is constitutional, urging in support the cases of Commonwealth v. Gould, 18 D. & C. 135, and Commonwealth v. Stoner, 28 D. & C. 489, but neither of these cases is in point. All of them relate to section 706 of the Act of 1923. Section 706 of the Act of 1923 was unconstitutional because of delegation of judicial power to a peace officer, and though neither my learned contemporary Judge Lewis, in Commonwealth v. Gould, nor Judge Davison, in Commonwealth v. Stoner, agreed with that conclusion, we are decidedly convinced of the soundness of the conclusion reached in Commonwealth v. Madison. The legislature may “make a law to delegate a power to determine some fact or state of things upon which the law makes, or intends to make, its own action depend. To deny this would be to stop the wheels of government” : Locke’s Appeal, 72 Pa. 491, 498. Still, when [417]

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Related

Commonwealth ex rel. McClain v. Locke
72 Pa. 491 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1873)
Commonwealth v. Tryman
62 Pa. Super. 241 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
39 Pa. D. & C. 413, 1940 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-meckes-paqtrsessmonroe-1940.