Court Opinion

ID: 9747848
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:38:50.64882+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:26.726786
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
Because I disagree with the majority that the trial court has discretion to grant a nunc pro tunc appeal when a licensee fails to timely file an appeal from a notice of suspension, I respectfully dissent.
On July 14, 2008, Richard Rutkowski (Licensee) was convicted for operating a vehicle without the required financial responsibility. On August 22, 2008, the Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver Licensing (Department) sent him a notice of suspension advising him that his driving privilege was being suspended for three months and that he had 80 days from the date of the notice to file an appeal. The deadline date to file an appeal was September 22, 2008. Instead of filing an appeal, on September 4, 2008, he wrote the Department requesting it to defer his suspension until his conviction appeal was decided. The Department denied his request by letter dated September 28, 2008, one day after the appeal period had run for filing an appeal from the suspension of his driving privilege, which Licensee received on September 29, 2008.
On September 30, 2008, Licensee petitioned the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County (trial court) for leave to appeal his license suspension nunc pro tune, and a hearing was held on his petition. No explanation was provided by the Department for the delay in responding to Licensee’s request to defer his suspension other than to state that Licensee’s situation was “unusual.” The trial court granted the request for nunc pro tunc relief and another two hearings were scheduled on the merits of Licensee’s suspension at which evidence was admitted.
The trial court issued a decision explaining that the reason it granted the nunc pro tunc appeal was because Licensee had made an early request to defer his suspension, but the Department had not responded in a reasonable time and Licensee then immediately filed the appeal after receiving the Department’s letter denying the delay of the suspension. As to the merits, the trial court noted that the conviction had been dismissed on January 5, 2009, and that dismissal was part of the license suspension record.
On appeal, the Department contends that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing Licensee to appeal his suspension nunc pro tunc because there was no evidence to support the trial court’s grant of the request. The Department relies on Bau v. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver Licensing, 949 A.2d 345 (Pa.Cmwlth.2008), a case with almost identical facts but where the trial court denied a request for nunc pro tunc relief because the licensee failed to timely file an appeal from a notice of suspension. In that case, the licensee was also convicted of operating a vehicle without the required financial responsibility and received a notice of suspension from the Department on March 20, 2007. The deadline for the appeal was April 20, 2007. On April 2, 2007, the licensee appealed her conviction and requested a delay in the suspension. The licensee received the Department letter denying the request to delay the suspension on April 23, 2007, three days after the appeal period had expired. The licensee petitioned the trial court for leave to proceed nunc pro tunc which the trial court denied. On appeal, we affirmed, stating that the licensee was not unaware of when the 30 *849day appeal period would expire and was not prevented from filing her appeal within that period. She merely failed to perfect her appeal within that time period. There also was no allegation that the Department acted in any manner to prevent her from filing her appeal within the 30 day appeal period.
On appeal in this case, the majority finds that Baum is distinguishable because the trial court here granted the request for nunc pro tunc relief based on Licensee’s argument that the Department acted in a manner that precluded him from filing within the 30 day appeal period. It also relies on the “abuse of discretion” standard, stating that it is a deferential standard, and in Baum, there was no record on which to question the trial court’s exercise of discretion, only the allegations in the licensee’s petition. In this case, however, the trial court “essentially had a stipulation of fact by the parties that the Department routinely grants a delay of suspension when the underlying conviction is being appealed. Moreover, the trial court inferred from the stipulated facts that the Department deliberately waited to respond to Licensee’s delay request until day 31 of the suspension appeal period.” (Majority opinion at 847.) I respectfully disagree because regardless of what the trial court “inferred,” Baum controls.
First, there was no “stipulation of facts” by the parties at the hearing. All that the Department stated at the hearing was that while it was its ordinary practice to postpone a license suspension when an appeal of a conviction underlying the suspension was pending, “in this particular circumstance, a licensee suspension, and I don’t doubt that Miss DeFazio didn’t know this at the time because it is an unusual circumstance, but under this particular type of case, driving without insurance, even if the summary appeal is granted, we can still proceed through testimony.” (Reproduced Record at 10a.) While the meaning of this is unclear, what is clear is that contrary to the majority’s belief, this cannot be sufficient for the trial court to infer “from the stipulated facts that the Department deliberately waited to respond to Licensee’s delay request until day 31 of the suspension appeal period.” There simply is no evidence that the Department deliberately waited to send a reply to Licensee so that he would be outside the 30 day filing period.
Second, when Licensee failed to receive a timely response to his request to defer his suspension, it was incumbent on him to timely appeal the written notice of suspension within the 30 days set forth in that notice. Because the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the merits of the appeal to be heard, I would also disagree with the majority’s determination on the merits of the case.
Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court’s decision.