Court Opinion

ID: 9753998
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:37:46.817887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:46.412331
License: Public Domain

CERCONE, President Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I remain unpersuaded that the position expressed in my opinions in Commonwealth v. Barone, 276 Pa.Superior Ct. 282, 419 A.2d 457 (1980), alloc. den., and in Commonwealth v. Lang, 285 Pa.Superior Ct. 34, 426 A.2d 691 (1981) and espoused by this Court in Commonwealth v. Nay, 281 Pa.Superior Ct. 226, 421 A.2d 1231 (1980) and in Commonwealth v. McIlwain School Bus Lines, 283 Pa. Superior Ct. 1, 423 A.2d 413 (1980) is incorrect.1 I believe that Judge Wickersham is correct when he states that the Supreme Court pulled the homicide by vehicle statute out of the mire of unconstitutionality by its proverbial bootstraps, and to that extent I concur in the result reached by the majority. However, I cannot rationally or ethically accept the majority’s conclusion that the Legislature intended to create a new level of criminal culpability falling between criminal negligence and absolute criminal liability, the Supreme Court’s pronouncements and stare decisis notwithstanding. My misgivings are somewhat assuaged by Judge Popovich’s cogent dissent, *369which points out the Supreme Court’s requirement that death be the probable consequence of the Vehicle Code violations. Such a requirement more nearly approximates criminal negligence than the minimum culpability requirement set out in the majority’s opinion. Because my views differ markedly from those expressed by the majority I feel compelled to commit them to print, wherefore I submit the following.
Section 3732 of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code defines the offense of homicide by vehicle.2 Violation of this provision of the Vehicle Code is classified as a misdemeanor of the first degree, and constitutes a crime by virtue of Section 106(a)(b) & (e) of the Crimes Code.3 Section 106(e) definitively states that “[a]n offense . . . defined by any statute other than [the Crimes Code] shall be classified as provided in” Crimes Code Section 106(a)-(d).4
Section 302(a) of the Crimes Code delineates the culpability requirements of offenses defined in the Crimes Code as well as all other offenses elsewhere defined. That section clearly provides that the minimum level of culpability is that culpability commonly referred to as criminal negligence. Section 302(a) reads:
Except as provided in section 305 of this title (relating to limitations on scope of culpability requirements), a person is not guilty of an offense unless he acted intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently, as the law may require, with respect to each material element of the offense.
*370The definition of criminal negligence, found in the Crimes Code at Section 302(b)(4), reads:
A person acts negligently with respect to a material element of an offense when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the actor’s failure to perceive it, considering the nature and intent of his conduct and the circumstances known to him, involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor’s situation.
18 Pa.C.S. § 302(b)(4).5 As is clear from Section 302(a) there are some exceptions to the culpability requirements set out elsewhere in that Section. These exceptions are found in Section 305 of the Crimes Code. Section 305 reads in full:

Limitations on scope of culpability requirements.

(a) When culpability requirements are inapplicable to summary offenses and to offenses defined by other statutes.—The requirements of culpability prescribed by section 301 of this title (relating to requirement of voluntary act) and section 302 of this title (relating to general requirements of culpability) do not apply to:
(1) summary offenses, unless the requirement involved is included in the definition of the offense or the court determines that its application is consistent with *371effective enforcement of the law defining the offense; or
(2) offenses defined by statutes other than this title, in so far as a legislative purpose to impose absolute liability for such offenses or with respect to any material element thereof plainly appears.
(b) Effect of absolute liability in reducing grade of offense to summary offense.—Notwithstanding any other provision of existing law and unless a subsequent statute otherwise provides:
(1) when absolute liability is imposed with respect to any material element of an offense defined by a statute other than this title and a conviction is based upon such liability, the offense constitutes a summary offense; and
(2) although absolute liability is imposed by law with respect to one or more of the material elements of an offense defined by a statute other than this title, the culpable commission of the offense may be charged and proved, in which event negligence with respect to such elements constitutes sufficient culpability and the classification of the offense and the sentence that may be imposed therefor upon conviction are determined by section 106 of this title (relating to classes of offenses) and Chapter 11 of this title (relating to authorized disposition of offenders).
18 Pa.C.S. § 305.6 Crimes Code Section 305 clearly exempts summary offenses from the culpability requirements of Section 302 (except of course the case where the definition of the summary offense includes a culpability requirement). Section 305 also exempts from the culpability requirements of Section 302 absolute liability offenses.
If we are to harmonize the Crimes Code provisions with the Vehicle Code’s definition of homicide by vehicle in Section 3732 we must decide that the Legislature intended either (1) to maintain the culpability requirements of Section 302 and apply them to Section 3732, or (2) plainly to impose *372absolute liability for violation of Section 3732 thus making use of the exemption from the operation of Section 302 contained in Section 305(a)(2).7 Cf. Commonwealth v. Barone, supra 276 Pa.Super. at 300-334, 419 A.2d at 467-485 (Concurring Opinion by Judge Spaeth) Commonwealth v. Field, 490 Pa. 519, 417 A.2d 160 (1980) and more recently Commonwealth v. Houtz, 496 Pa. 344, 437 A.2d 385 (1981) make it unmistakably clear that homicide by vehicle is not an absolute liability offense. This leads one to the inescapable conclusion either that the culpability requirements of Section 302 of the Crimes Code apply to homicide by vehicle, or that the Vehicle Code cannot be reconciled or harmonized with the Crimes Code. With the latter conclusion comes the clear implication that the Legislature intended to create an additional level of culpability when it enacted Vehicle Code Section 3732 and thereby exempt homicide by vehicle from the culpability requirements of the Crimes Code sub silentio.8 It is my earnest belief that the Legislature intended no such expansion of the scope of liability for homicide by vehicle9, and that had it intended the homicide by vehicle *373statute to supersede Sections 302 and 305 of the Crimes Code it would have done so openly and explicitly.
Can it be said that the Legislature’s intention to create an absolute liability statute or one nearly approaching it so plainly appears that the culpability requirements of Crimes Code Section 302 and 305 do not apply to homicide by vehicle? I think not, and accordingly, I dissent.

. But see, Commonwealth v. Hartzell, 282 Pa.Superior Ct. 549, 423 A.2d 381 (1980); Commonwealth v. Spurgeon, 285 Pa.Superior Ct. 563, 428 A.2d 189 (1981).

. Act of June 17, 1976, P.L. 162, No. 81, § 1; 75 Pa.C.S. § 3732. That section reads:
Any person who unintentionally causes the death of another person while engaged in the violation of any law of this Commonwealth or municipal ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle or to the regulation of traffic is guilty of homicide by vehicle, a misdemeanor of the first degree, when the violation is the cause of death.

. Act of December 6, 1972, P.L. 1482, No. 334, § 1, as amended March 24, 1974, P.L. 213, No. 46, § 1; 18 Pa.C.S. § 106.

. 18 Pa.C.S. § 106(e).

. Section 302(c) of the Crimes Code provides that where the statute defining the offense does not set out the culpability required to establish a material element of the offense then the minimum level of culpability required to establish that element (or all the elements if no culpability is set out) is recklessness. Section 302(c) & (d) read:
(c) Culpability required unless otherwise provided.—When the culpability sufficient to establish a material element of an offense is not prescribed by law, such element is established if a person acts intentionally, knowingly or reckiessly with respect thereto.
(d) Prescribed culpability requirement applies to all material elements.—When the law defining an offense prescribes the kind of culpability that is sufficient for the commission of an offense, without distinguishing among the material elements thereof, such provision shall apply to all the material elements of the offense, unless a contrary purpose plainly appears.
18 Pa.C.S. § 302(c) & (d).

. Act of December 6, 1972, P.L. 1482, No. 334, § 1.

. Clearly the Legislature did not intend homicide by vehicle to constitute a summary offense and therefore Crimes Code Section 305(a)(1) does not come into play.

. See Commonwealth v. Field, supra, n.4 for the Supreme Court’s discussion of the Legislature’s intent in enacting Section 3732.

. As Judge Dowling of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas points out in his fine opinion in Commonwealth v. Serucsak, 9 D. & C. 3d 677 (1979) the word “unintentional” in the homicide by vehicle statute refers not to the accused’s violation of the Motor Vehicle Code but rather to his desire to bring about the deceased’s demise. Judge Dowling writes:
On its face [the vehicular homicide statute] appears to say that if you violate any provision of the Vehicle Code and as a result death occurs you are ipso facto guilty. This would appear to be quite a departure—one as different as the electric from the gas engine. A cursory examination creates an impression that the statute is designed to prescribe [sic] unintentional conduct which causes the death of another person, but a more careful perusal indicate[s] that the word “unintentional” refers to the defendant’s desire to cause the death.
Id. at 679. (footnote omitted). The word “unintentional” thus distinguishes homicide by vehicle from intentional homicide involving violations of the Vehicle Code.
*373In Commonwealth v. Kishbaugh, 11 D. & C. 3d (1979) Judge Davison of Lehigh County, pursuing the same analysis of Section 3732 as Judge Gates in Commonwealth v. Serucsak, supra, arrived at exactly the opposite conclusion: that the Legislature plainly intended to impose absolute liability.