Commonwealth v. Nescoda

20 Pa. D. & C. 643, 1934 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 294
CourtSchuylkill County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedFebruary 26, 1934
Docketno. 1176
StatusPublished

This text of 20 Pa. D. & C. 643 (Commonwealth v. Nescoda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Schuylkill 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. Nescoda, 20 Pa. D. & C. 643, 1934 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 294 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1934).

Opinion

Hicks, P. J.,

The charge laid against the defendant was the violation of The Vehicle Code of May 1,1929, P. L. 905, sec. 903, as amended by the Act of June 22,1931, P. L. 751, sec. 2, condemning the operation of commercial motor vehicles upon highways with gross weights exceeding those specified in the act. For the violation of the provisions of this section, summary proceedings may be brought before a magistrate and upon conviction the defendant may be sentenced to pay a fine and costs, and imprisoned on default of the payment thereof. Under section 1204 (a) of the said act it is provided that any person convicted in any summary proceeding under the act shall have the right of appeal as in other cases of summary conviction.

The exact matter before us for decision is a motion to set aside the defendant’s summary conviction and dismiss the whole proceeding, which motion was filed almost 5 months after special allowance was given to the defendant to appeal and which bears no relation whatsoever to the appeal or the reasons alleged for special allowance thereof. We are asked in the motion before us to set aside the conviction before the magistrate and dismiss the whole proceeding because the return of the transcript shows that a warrant was issued forthwith, in violation of section 2 of the Act of 1931, supra, and further, because the defendant did not have a reasonable time in which to answer the charges [644]*644against him. The appeal having been made to this court, the case was to have been heard de novo on its merits, but seemingly, by the motion to set aside, the defendant does not wish a decision upon the merits, which is the purpose of an appeal, but desires to use the petition for an appeal as the basis for the present application. This practice is highly improper and is not warranted in law or reason. Certainly it cannot be contended, if the ease was not before us on appeal, that the court of quarter sessions could upon the motion before us set aside the conviction in the magistrate’s court and dismiss the whole proceeding before him. And, in like manner, we cannot do this when the case is before us on appeal. Upon the appeal, we can only enter a judgment of guilty or not guilty, conviction or acquittal.

In his petition for the allowance of an appeal, the defendant alleged that the judgment of guilty before the magistrate was contrary to the evidence and that he was unjustly convicted. The transcript attached to the petition shows, however, that he entered a plea of guilty and paid the fine and costs after hearing. Whether the allowance of the appeal was improvidently granted we do not decide.

The allowance of the appeal is not of right, but rests in the sound discretion of the court; and an appeal will be allowed only for good and sufficient cause, e. g., some le^al question involved, oppression, corruption, or other misconduct, or after-discovered evidence. The appeal must be upon cause shown, not merely to review conclusions of fact; and the cause shown must be violative of some legal principle, some misconduct or oppression, which will appeal to the court as a reason for granting a further and fairer hearing. The law does not contemplate that an appeal shall be allowed merely because the party desiring it is dissatisfied with the result of the trial before the magistrate. See cases collated in note 29 to 19 PS § 1189.

“It is well settled that an appeal by a defendant from a summary conviction before a magistrate or court not of record should not be allowed save for cause shown: Thompson v. Preston, 5 Pa. Superior Ct. 154; that to ascertain the cause alleged, reference must be had to the petition presented to the court below: Com. v. Menjou, 174 Pa. 25; and that the matter of allowing or refusing an appeal rests in the sound discretion of the court of quarter sessions, or a judge thereof: Com. v. Levine, 36 Pa. Superior Ct. 188; Com. v. Hendley, 7 Pa. Superior Ct. 356. ‘Ordinarily an appeal should not be permitted, if the party desiring it has had an opportunity to fully and fairly present his case before the magistrate, unless a doubtful legal question is involved, or there is something to indicate oppression, corruption or disregard of law on the part of the magistrate, or after discovered evidence which would justify a new trial under the well known rules relating to new trials for that cause. Neither Article v, Section 14, of the Constitution, nor the Act of 1876, which was passed to carry it into effect, contemplates that an appeal shall be allowed merely because the party desiring it is dissatisfied with the result of the trial’: Thompson v. Preston, supra. But in Com. v. Levine, supra, President Judge Rice, speaking for this court, pointed out that Section 14 of Article V of the Constitution enlarges the right of appeal in cases of summary conviction by providing, within certain restrictions, a mode whereby not merely the fairness and impartiality of the hearing before the magistrate could be inquired into, and his errors of law, as shown by his record, could be corrected, but whereby the judgment of the court of quarter sessions upon the facts established by the evidence adduced in that tribunal could be had; and that while to grant the appeal is discretionary, to accord the parties such hearing, under the circumstances stated, is not discretionary but demandable of right, unless the appeal has been vacated or dismissed [645]*645upon cause shown”: Commonwealth v. MacDonald, 94 Pa. Superior Ct. 486, 488, 489.

Ordinarily, in cases of summary conviction, the payment of the costs and fine by the defendant ends the proceeding, and an appeal will not lie, the only remedy being by certiorari: Commonwealth v. Scott, 28 Pitts. (O. S.) 446; Commonwealth v. Gipner, 118 Pa. 379. See City of McKeesport v. Dunn, 83 Pa. Superior Ct. 194, 196.

Under section 1204 (c), it is specifically provided, on the hearing of an appeal from a summary conviction by any person convicted, if the court find him not guilty, that restitution of the fine and costs shall be decreed. Thus by statute, in this case, if one is convicted, the payment of costs and fine does not end the proceeding. The right of appeal, under section 1204 (a), has been given to any person convicted in any summary proceeding. We have grave doubt whether the defendant, since he entered a plea of guilty, had the right of appeal even though in some cases conviction is held to include, in its more technical meaning, verdict and sentence thereon: Wilmoth v. Hensel, 151 Pa. 200; Commonwealth v. McDermott (No. 2), 224 Pa. 363; Commonwealth v. Minnich, 250 Pa. 363; Commonwealth v. Miller et al., 6 Pa. Superior Ct. 35.

On appeal from a summary conviction, the record of the justice of the peace must show that a warrant was issued or that the defendant was arrested on view; that the defendant appeared before the justice; that the prosecutor and witnesses for the Commonwealth were sworn or that testimony was offered, and the nature and character of the evidence; the names of the witnesses who were called and testified; that the defendant was adjudged guilty; and of what crime or offense he was found guilty. A true transcript of such record must be attached to the petition of the defendant for an allocatur.

The appeal in this case was filed on August 30, 1933, to no. 10, September term, 1933, misc. docket no. 2, p. 350. And upon this appeal the case should have been heard de novo.

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Related

City of McKeesport v. Dunn
83 Pa. Super. 194 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)
Commonwealth v. MacDonald
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164 A. 113 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1932)
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Steward v. Renner
87 Pa. Super. 411 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1925)
Commonwealth v. Burkhart
23 Pa. 521 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1854)
Commonwealth v. Gipner
12 A. 306 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1888)
Wilmoth v. Hensel
25 A. 86 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Commonwealth v. Gelbert
32 A. 1091 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1895)
Commonwealth v. Phelps
32 A. 1092 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1895)
Commonwealth v. Menjou
34 A. 301 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1896)
Commonwealth v. McDermott
73 A. 427 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1909)
Commonwealth v. Minnich
95 A. 565 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1915)
Thompson v. Preston
5 Pa. Super. 154 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1897)
Commonwealth v. Miller
6 Pa. Super. 35 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1897)
Commonwealth ex rel. Allegheny County v. Hendley
7 Pa. Super. 356 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1898)
Swain v. Brady
19 Pa. Super. 459 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1902)
Commonwealth v. Yocum
29 Pa. Super. 428 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1905)
Commonwealth v. Levine
36 Pa. Super. 188 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1908)
Gibson v. Haworth
47 Pa. Super. 618 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1911)

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Bluebook (online)
20 Pa. D. & C. 643, 1934 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-nescoda-paqtrsessschuyl-1934.