Court Opinion

ID: 9748361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:00:41.315544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:34.514672
License: Public Domain

CAPPY, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that Section 3303(a) of the Railway and Street Railway Police Act (“Act”), 22 Pa.C.S. § 3303(a), authorized Matthew Porter, a police officer with the Port Authority of Allegheny County (“Port Authority”) to stop and arrest Appellant. I do not, however, agree with the majority’s reasoning.
As this case raises a question of statutory construction, Pennsylvania’s Statutory Construction Act applies. 1 Pa.C.S. §§ 1901-1991. According to 1 Pa.C.S. § 1921(a), the object in any statutory construction case is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the General Assembly. Under 1 Pa.C.S. § 1903(a) and § 1921(b) respectively, a statute’s words and phrases are to be construed according to their common meaning and approved usage, and where the words of a statute are clear and free from ambiguity, the letter of the statute may not be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.
In relevant part, the Act confers full police powers within the Commonwealth upon Port Authority officers who have undergone the requisite training “while engaged in the discharge of their duties in pursuit of ... transportation system business.” 22 Pa.C.S. § 3303(a).1 For me, Section 3303(a)’s words are clear and unambiguous, and mean that a Port Authority officer may exercise such powers while he is fulfilling a responsibility that his position requires of him. There*620fore, I believe that Officer Porter was authorized under Section 3303(a) to stop and arrest Appellant simply because Officer Porter “was engaged in the discharge his duties in pursuit of ... transportation system business” within the statute’s plain meaning when he was traveling on the Fort Pitt Bridge en route from a Port Authority station to an assignment on a Port Authority bus-way.
I take issue with the majority’s construction of Section 3303(a) because it essentially adds to the statute’s terms. That is to say, I disagree with the majority’s decision to condition an officer’s exercise of the authority that Section 3303(a) gives him upon the establishment of “a sufficient connection to [Port Authority’s] transportation system business”, (Majority Opinion at 8), and to base Officer Porter’s authority to take action on the fact that Appellant’s conduct jeopardized Port Authority personnel and property. Moreover, insofar as Officer Porter was performing a function of his position, I view him as having been on “transportation system business”, and, therefore, I disagree with the majority’s reference to Officer Porter’s “mere ‘on-duty5 status” and the role that the majority envisions this phrase to play when the courts construe Section 3303(a)’s extraterritorial jurisdiction standard hereafter. (Majority Opinion at 7-8).
In my view, the majority’s analysis of Section 3303(a) does not arise out of the Act’s language nor does it effectuate the legislature’s intent, but rather, improperly reflects the majority’s conception of the extraterritorial jurisdiction that Port Authority officers should possess.
I would, therefore, affirm the order of the Superior Court for the reasons that the Superior Court stated.

. Under the Act, Port Authority officers have and may exercise all the powers of City of Philadelphia police officers, and must complete the same course of instruction required of municipal police. 22 Pa.C.S. § 3303(a),(d).