Case ID: pa-d-c_9/html/0632-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Watson, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Commonwealth v. Bostek et al.
    
      Trespass on posted property — Penalty—Act of April If, 1905.
    
    1. The penalty for trespassing on land posted as private property is regulated by the Act of April 14, 1905, P. L. 169, and imprisonment in default of payment of fine is fixed at “one day for each dollar of fine,” and the court has no jurisdiction to impose a longer term of imprisonment.
    2. The act, being penal in character, must be construed strictly.
    
      Certiorari to justice’s court in proceeding to recover penalty for trespass on posted land. C. P. Lackawanna Co., Jan. T., 1926, No. 67.
    
      J. F. Tedesco, for plaintiff; Kelly & Kennedy, for defendants.
   Watson, J.

This suit was brought before a justice of the peace to recovei penalty for trespass on land posted as private property. The offence is defined by the Act of April 14, 1905, P. L. 169.

Of the exceptions filed, we shall consider only one. The record of the justice has the following entry:

“And now, Nov. 9, 1925, after hearing, and I do adjudge that the saicl defendants shall forfeit and pay a fine of five dollars ($5.00) each of them® and eight dollars and fifty cents ($8.50) costs, or ten days in the county jail To be collected and distributed as directed according to above act of assembly and its supplements.
“In default of fine and costs, within named defendants were committed t< county jail.”

The act of assembly provides that: “Every person violating the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding ten dollars, togethe: with the costs of prosecution, to be recovered before any magistrate or justiei of the peace as fines and penalties are by law recoverable; and in default o: payment of said fine and costs, the party convicted shall be committed to th< county jail of the proper county for one day for each dollar of fine imposed.’

The statute, being penal in character, must be construed strictly. But strie construction is not necessary in the face of the plain language of the act. Thi imprisonment in default of payment is “for one day for each dollar of fine.’

This error on the part of the justice vitiates the proceedings: Tewsbury % Miller, 9 Lacka. Jurist, 262.

Now, Aug. 3, 1926, the proceedings before the justice are reversed.

From William A. Wilcox, Scranton, Pa.