IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Joel Salih, :

: Appellant :

:

v. : No. 1524 C.D. 2018 : Submitted: March 29, 2019 County of Allegheny Office : of District Attorney, the City : of McKeesport, and Police : Sergeant Derek Stitt :

BEFORE: HONORABLE RENÉE COHN JUBELIRER, Judge

HONORABLE ROBERT SIMPSON, Judge 1 HONORABLE MICHAEL H. WOJCIK, Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE WOJCIK FILED: January 23, 2020

Joel Salih (Appellant) appeals pro se from the August 6, 2018 order of

the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County (trial court) sustaining the
preliminary objections filed by the City of McKeesport and Police Sergeant Derek

Stitt (together, Appel lees ) and dismissing Appellant’s complaint with prejudice.

We affirm.

On December 6, 2017, Appellant filed a civil complaint under

42 U.S.C. §1983 (Section 1983) agains t Appellees and the County of Allegheny

1 This matter was assigned to this panel before September 1, 2019, when Judge Simpson assumed the status of senior judge and was decided before Judge Simpson ’ s service on the Court ended on December 31, 2019.2

Office of D istrict Attorney ( County)

, alleging that Appellees violated his

constitutional right s when he was arrested on Nove m ber 16, 2016, without
probable cause. On March 29, 2018, Appellant filed a praecipe to discontinue the

c a se without prejudice against the County

.

Appellant fi l e d pr oof of se r v i ce on April 6, 2018, certifying tha t the
complaint h a d bee n served on Appellees as of A pril 5, 2018, by United States m ail

, pursuant to Pa. R.C.P . No. 403(1)

. 2 Original Record at 8. On May 14, 2018,
Appellant filed a praecipe to enter default judgment. Attached as an exhibit to the
praecipe was a copy of a December 11, 2017 letter from Appellant addressed to the
Allegheny County S heriff ’ s Offic e requesting service of the complaint pursuant to

Pa. R.C.P. No. 400.

On May 25, 2018, Appellees f iled preliminary objections asserting (1)
a lack of jurisdiction based on Appellant’s failure to serve Appellee s in accordance

2 Pa. R.C.P. No. 403(1) states :

I f a rule of civil procedure authori zes original process to be serv ed by mail , a copy of the process shall be mailed to the defendant by any form of mail requiring a receipt sign ed by the defe n da n t or his authorized agent

. Service is complete upon delivery of the mail

.

(1) If the mail is returned with notation by the postal authorities that the defendant refused to accept the mail, the plaintiff shall have the right of service by mailing a copy to the defendant at the same address by ordinary mail with the return ad dress of the sender appearing thereon. Service by ordinary mail is complete if the mail is not returned to the sender within fifteen days after mailing.

Pa. R.C.P. No. 403(1)

.3

with Pa. R.C.P. No. 400 (service by the sheriff) 3 or to reinstate the complaint

, 4 and
(2) legal insufficiency of Appellant’s cla im f or false arrest where Appellant was
found guilty of all charges on January 25, 2018

. Pa. R.C.P. No. 1028(a)(1), (a)(4).
By order dated August 6, 2018, the trial court sustained the pre l i m inary objections
on both grounds and dismissed Appellant’s complaint with prejudice

.

The trial court stated that the only proof of service of record was filed
on April 6, 2018, five months after the complaint was filed. The proof of service
states that the complaint was served by United States m ail, rather tha n by the
sheriff as required under Pa. R.C.P. No. 400. The trial court a l so noted that the
complaint was never reinstated. The trial court concluded that it lacked personal
jurisdiction over Appellees based on Appellant’s failure to properly serve
Appell ees via the sheriff. 5

Additionally, the trial court determined the complaint was legally

insufficient to state a claim under Section 1983 based on false arrest

. T he trial
court explained that a claim for false arrest under the Fourth Amendment arises

w hen an arrest has been made without probable cause, and probable cause is

3 Pa. R.C.P. No. 400 (a) states , “ Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c) and in
Rules 400.1 and 1930.4, original process shall be served within the Commonwealth only by the
sheriff. ”

4 See Pa. R.C.P. No. 401 ( requiring service be made within thirty days after the filing of a

com plaint and authorizing reissuance or reinstatement of original process when service is not made timely).

5 The trial court acknowledged Appellant’s assertion that his praecipe for default judgment reflects h is attempt to effectuate serv ice upon Appellees by the sheriff in December 2017, but characterized the assertion that service was attempted as insufficient. Because we affirm on other grounds

, we do not address the trial court’s determination that it lacked personal jurisdiction over Appellees.4

conclusively established where, as here, the accused has been convicted of the
charges for which he was arrested.

On appeal, 6 we first consider Appellant’s Statement of the Questions

Involved

, 7 which asks only , “Is what happened to [Appellant] a crime and if so
does this vacate the lower court’s order due to the court’s knowledge of
[Appellant’s] attempt to effect service of original process?” Appellant’s B rief at 2.

In the argument section of his brief, Appellant asserts that the sheriff tampered
with public records and that the sheriff’s criminal conduct caused the dismissal of
his complaint. T h i s issue was not decided or raised before the trial court during the
civil pro ceedings on Appellant’s Section 1983 claim and will not be addressed for
the first time on appeal. See Pa. R.A.P. 302(a) ( “ Issues not raised in the lower
court are waived and cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. ” ); Siegfried v.
Borough of Wilson , 695 A.2d 892, 894 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997) ( “ Rule 302(a) clearly

states that issues not raised in the trial court are waived and cannot be raised for the
first time on appeal .”)

. Further, an appellate court may sua sponte refuse to
address an issue raised on appeal that was not raised and preserved below

. In Re
Lehigh County Constables

, 172 A.3d 712, 717 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2017)

. Consequently,

we conclude that Appellant has failed to preserve any issue for our review. Pa.

R.A.P. 302(a) ; Pa. R.A.P. 2116.

Moreover, overlooking Appellant’s waiver of all appellate claims, we

discern no error i n the trial court’s dismissal of Appellant’s complaint on the

6 Appellant filed an appeal with Superior Court, which , by order of October 9, 2018, sua sponte transferred the matter to this Court.

7 Pa. R.A.P. 2116 states, “No question will be considered unless it is stated in the statement of questions involved or is fairly suggest ed thereby.”5

grounds that the facts averred in the complaint are lega l ly insufficient to state a

claim for relief under Section 1983

. This C ourt has explained:

To determine whether Appellant has stated a [Section] 1983 action:
[T]he initial inquiry must focus on whether the two essential elements to a [Section] 198 3 action are present: (1) whether the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law, and (2) whether this conduct deprived a person of rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United Stat es

. Uram v. County of Allegheny

, 567 A.2d 753, 757 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1989)

.

Appellant’s claim for relief under Section 1983 is for false arrest

. In
determining liability i n a Section 1983 action based on a claim of false arrest , the

critical issue is whether the arresting officers had probable ca use to believe the
person arrested had committed the offense. Wagner v. Waitleve rtc h

, 774 A.2d
1247, 1253 (Pa. Super. 2001)

. “ Probable cause for arrest exists when the facts and
circumstances are sufficient to warrant a reasonable person to believe that an offense had been or is being committed by the person to be arrested. ” Id. In
McGriff v. Vidovich , 699 A.2d 797, 800 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997), this Court affirmed

the dismissal of actions for false arrest on the basis that probable cause wa s conclusively established by the appellant’s guilty plea to the offenses for which h e was charged.
The appellant in McGriff was arrested and charged with burglary,
theft, and criminal mischief. After pleading guilty to those crimes, the appellant
filed two complaints against the arresting police officer alleging that the officer
prepared a false, misleading, and incomplete arrest warrant and acted
incompetently, leading to the appellant’s false arrest. The appellant6

simultaneously filed a petition to proceed in forma pauperis . The trial court
determined that the complaints for false arrest could not be maintained because the
appellant pled guilty to the charges for which he was arrested. Consequently, the
trial court dismissed the complaints as frivolous.

On appea l to this Court, we cited our Superior Court’s decision in
Cosmas v. Bloomingdale Bros., Inc. , 660 A.2d 83 (Pa. Super. 1995), an appeal
from the grant of summary judgment in a malicious prosecution action. The
Superior Court observed in Cosmas that Pennsy lvania courts generally consider a
conviction to be conclusive proof of the existence of probable cause. Id

. at 86.
Our Court adopted that general rule in McGriff . We stated that while the law had
been somewhat unclear in the past, “we now agree with th e Superior Court that
under the present state of Pennsylvania law, probable cause is conclusively
established at the time the arrest was made where there is a guilty plea or

conviction.” McGriff

, 699 A.2d at 800

. We affirmed the trial court’s order,
expl aining that, having agreed with the Superior Court in Cosmas “that the law of
Pennsylvania is the Restatement position that a guilty plea conclusively establishes
probable cause, [the appellant] cannot establish an essential element needed to

make a cause of action for false arrest.” McGriff , 699 A.2d at 800

. Accordingly, we affirm. 8

MICHAEL H. WOJCIK, Judge

8 On November 8, 2019, Appellant filed a Request for Oral Argument and a Request for Argument En Banc

, whic h, b ased on our disposition, we dismiss as moot.IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Joel Salih, :

: Appellant :

:

v. : No. 1524 C.D. 2018

: County of Allegheny Office : of District Attorney, the City : of McKeesport, and Police : Sergeant Derek Stitt :

O R D E R

AND NOW, this 23 rd day of January , 20 20

, the order of the Court of
Common Pleas of Allegheny County, dated August 6, 2018, is AFFIRMED.
Appellant’s R equest f

or Oral Argument and Request for Arg ument En B anc are

DISMI S SED as moot.

__________________________________ MICHAEL H. WOJCIK, Judge