Torado v. Commonwealth

9 Pa. D. & C. 314, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Westmoreland County
DecidedJuly 24, 1926
DocketNo. 860
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Pa. D. & C. 314 (Torado v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Westmoreland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Torado v. Commonwealth, 9 Pa. D. & C. 314, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinion

Whitten, J.

On Saturday evening, March 20, 1926, the plaintiffs in error and twenty-nine other persons were attending a social event at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Leonard, known as Leonard’s Inn, in Penn Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The persons there assembled did not disperse at midnight, but remained there until 3 o’clock A. M., March 21, 1926 (being Sunday morning), when John B. West, a justice of the peace, Constables H. C. Taylor and B. W. Kunkle and Deputy Constables C. Gressler and Glenn N. Welsh entered the said house, at which time said justice of the peace announced to those present (hereinafter designated as the defendants) that they were guilty of desecrating the law relating to the Sabbath.

The said justice then announced that each of said defendants should place in his hands the sum of $6, to be forfeited in case such defendants did not appear at the office of said justice March 26, 1926, for a further hearing, and that any defendant failing to place this sum in his hands would be committed to the county jail. Fifty-one of the defendants placed the required forfeit in the hands of the justice, and the justice committed the two other defendants to the county jail because of their failure to furnish the required cash bail. After remaining in jail about six hours, these two defendants furnished the required cash bail and were released from further imprisonment.

[315]*315March 25, 1926 — being- the day fixed by the justice for the appearance of such defendants as desired a further hearing — twenty-two of the said defendants appeared at the office of the said justice for such hearing, and then and there, complying with the requests of defendants’ attorney, the justice returned to each defendant so appearing the said $5 cash bail.

At the request of their attorney, the hearing as to nine of the defendants who did not appear was continued until April 1, 1926. The record of the justice makes no further reference to these nine defendants.

Also, on the same day (March 25, 1926), the said justice announced that cash bail of $5 paid by each of the other twenty-one defendants who failed to appear for such hearing was “forfeited for costs.”

The plaintiffs in error in this case include only the twenty-two defendants who appeared before the said justice for further hearing March 25, 1926.

At said hearing, one witness was called in behalf of the Commonwealth and two witnesses in behalf of the defendants. At the conclusion of the testimony, the record of the justice contains the following decision: “The justice then publicly stated that he found the following defendants (being the twenty-two defendants above named) guilty of a violation of the Act of April 22, 1794, and fined each of them $4 and costs of $3.67.”

The record also shows the following: “Counsel for defendants then stated that his clients would go to jail and requested the justice to issue commitments for each defendant present. The justice then issued commitments for each defendant, and then the counsel for defendants made payment, under protest, of the sum of $7.67 for each defendant.”

The record also contains the following: “No informations were made in any of the cases against the defendants. The charges of the law were made by the justice upon complaints and upon view, and not upon information and warrant.”

In the record returned by the justice, there appears the following statement, which apparently contains the accusation made against the defendants, to wit: “Be it remembered that on the 21st day of March, 1926, the same being the Lord’s Day, commonly called Sunday, at 3 A. M., at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Leonard, known as Leonard’s Inn, in Pleasant Valley, Penn Township, County of Westmoreland, and State of Pennsylvania, Justice of the Peace appeared, in company with Constables H. C. Taylor and B. W. Kunkle and Deputy Constables C. Gressler and Glenn N. Welsh, and found the house all lighted up and the inmates engaged in unlawfully indulging in the diversion of dancing with music furnished by hired musicians, accompanied by loud, boisterous talking, crying out to one another and stamping heavily with their feet, all of which is contrary to the Act of Assembly in such cases made and provided, April 22, 1794 (3 Sm. Laws, 177).”

Section 4 of the said Act of April 22, 1794, provides: “Every justice of the peace within his county . . . are hereby empowered ... to proceed against and punish all persons offending against this act . . . and for that purpose . . . may and shall convict such offenders by his own view and hearing, or shall issue, if need be, a warrant ... to bring the body of the accused person before him.”

Said statute, after providing that said justice shall, in a summary way, inquire into the truth of the accusation and commit the persons so charged, further provides: “Shall proceed to pronounce the forfeiture incurred by the person so convicted . . . and if the person so convicted refuse or neglect to satisfy such forfeiture immediately, with costs, or produce goods or chattels [316]*316whereon to levy said forfeiture, together with costs, then the said justice shall commit the offender without bail ... to the common jail of the county.”

The said statute further provides that: “Every such prosecution shall be commenced within seventy-two hours after the offence shall be committed.”

In the instant case, the prosecution was commenced immediately. The hearing held March 25, 1926, was but a continuance of the hearing which was commenced March 21, 1926.

The defendants were arrested in an inn or tavern, and not in a private house. The justice, in framing the charge against the defendants, states that they were engaged in dancing and were making loud and tumultuous noises with their voices and with their feet. However, from an examination of the record of the said justice, it is not clear that the conduct of the defendants in the instant case constituted a breach of the peace. The basis of the charge against the defendants is embraced in that portion of the Act of 1794 which prohibits the use or practice of “any unlawful . . . sport or diversion on Sunday.”

Construing the above language of this statute, the Superior Court (Com. v. Coleman, 60 Pa. Superior Ct. 382) says: “A sport may not be unlawful in itself, but if carried on on Sunday in a noisy manner in a public place, it may become unlawful, because disorderly, though it may be carried on during the week with as much or even more noise with perfect propriety. . . . Any sport or diversion whatsoever which actually produces or tends to produce disorder on Sunday so as to disturb the peace of law-abiding citizens of the community, is prohibited by the Act of 1794, which was intended to enable people at large to devote that day to rest and the worship of God.”

In the instant case, the justice, in his accusation against the defendants, does not state that the peace of law-abiding citizens of the community was actually disturbed thereby; but there was proof that the conduct of the defendants was tumultuous and disorderly.

At the conclusion of the hearing on March 25, 1926, the justice publicly stated that he “found the defendants guilty of a violation of the Act of April 22, 1794, and fined each of them $4 and $3.67 costs.”

This record of the justice, standing alone, is not sufficient to sustain a conviction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Pa. D. & C. 314, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/torado-v-commonwealth-pactcomplwestmo-1926.