Opinion ID: 2083044
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: This Court's Homicide By Vehicle Decisions

Text: In addition to the Crimes Code's culpability provisions, the majority's rationale is predicated upon prior determinations of this Court in the homicide by vehicle setting, principally Field, 490 Pa. at 519, 417 A.2d at 160, and Heck, 517 Pa. at 192, 535 A.2d at 575. First, in Field, in addressing the argument that Section 3732 of the Vehicle Code violated constitutional precepts, the Court reasoned that the statute in fact included a culpability requirement deriving from the underlying summary Vehicle Code violation (there, driving on sidewalk, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3703), thus avoiding any constitutional impediment. See id. at 524-25, 417 A.2d at 163. [18] Field was vague in terms of identifying the precise nature of the culpability requirement discerned. See Heck, 517 Pa. at 197, 535 A.2d at 578 (noting that, in Field, the question of what culpability was required was left unresolved). Field, however, simply is unsupportable. Section 3703 of the Vehicle Code (like all other summary offenses under provisions of the Vehicle Code which lack a specific penalty term) constitutes a summary offense punishable solely by the imposition of a $25 fine. See 75 Pa.C.S. § 6502. Pursuant to the MPC and Section 305(a) of the Crimes Code, the culpability provisions are therefore wholly inapplicable to such infraction. See 18 Pa.C.S. § 305(a). Together with the strict limitation on the penalty, the absence of any express or default culpability requirement places such offense squarely among the purest forms of violations intended to be treated as absolute liability offenses and which are, almost beyond question, within the justifiable and permissible scope of absolute liability. See supra note 12 and accompanying text. See generally Parmar, 551 Pa. at 331, 710 A.2d at 1089 (opinion in support of affirmance)(stating that [a] criminal statute that imposes absolute liability typically involves regulation of traffic or liquor laws). Since the violation at issue clearly lacked any culpability requirement, Field's attempt to derive a culpability requirement for homicide by vehicle from the underlying driving on sidewalk infraction lacks justification. Field caused confusion in Pennsylvania courts on account of its flawed reasoning and by virtue of its failure to designate the degree of culpability necessary to support a conviction for homicide by vehicle. See Heck, 517 Pa. at 198-99, 535 A.2d at 578. Ultimately, this culminated in a divided, en banc decision of the Superior Court, Commonwealth v. Koch, 297 Pa.Super. 350, 443 A.2d 1157 (1982)(plurality). In the lead opinion, after expressing his disagreement with Field's reasoning, see id. at 355, 443 A.2d at 1160 (stating that, [i]n effect, our supreme court has saved section 3732 from the due process challenge of criminal liability without fault by a bootstrap analysis), Judge Wickersham concluded that this Court had effectively inserted a culpability requirement akin to civil negligence into Section 3732. See id. at 354-57, 443 A.2d at 1159-61. Judge Spaeth filed a concurring opinion also identifying errors in Field's reasoning, see Koch, 297 Pa.Super. at 362-66, 443 A.2d at 1162-65 (Spaeth, J., concurring), and arguing that the decision represented neither a persuasive precedent, nor one that forecloses further attack on the constitutional validity of the statute creating the crime of homicide by vehicle. Id. at 359, 443 A.2d at 1162 (Spaeth, J., concurring). This Court attempted to answer such criticisms and provide clarification in Heck, 517 Pa. at 192, 535 A.2d at 575, the second of the decisions relied upon by the majority in the present case. Although acknowledging the confusion, the Court admitted to no flaw in Field, but rather, maintained that Field definitively answered the issue of whether § 3732 requires culpable conduct to sustain a conviction. See id. at 197, 535 A.2d at 578. The Court then stated that the confusion occurred as a result of the Superior Court's reliance upon dicta from Field and another decision, Commonwealth v. Houtz, 496 Pa. 345, 437 A.2d 385 (1981). See id. [19] Specifically, in responding to the criticism concerning the erroneous derivation of a culpability requirement from the offense underlying the homicide by vehicle charge, the Court stated, [t]his criticism was unwarranted because the discussions of culpability in Field ... were not relevant to the issues which had been presented. Id. at 199, 535 A.2d at 579. Further, the Court indicated that its past decisions upholding the constitutionality of Section 3732 had effectively resolved the culpability question. See id. at 200, 535 A.2d at 579 (stating that, without ever having been presented with the issue of the level of culpability required under § 3732, the tenor of our prior opinions rejecting constitutional challenges to the statute would appear to have resolved the issue (citing Commonwealth v. Hicks, 502 Pa. 344, 466 A.2d 613 (1983))). The Court nonetheless indicated that it would not permit such a critical question to be answered by implication and offered the following conclusion: We now hold that ordinary negligence will not sustain a conviction for the offense of homicide by vehicle. The applicable mens rea requirements of culpability are those enumerated in 18 Pa.C.S. § 302(a).