Court Opinion

ID: 9749085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:23:53.287649+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:43.872038
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
Although I agree with the opinion of Mr. Justice Flaherty that judgment of sentence must be affirmed, I cannot join that opinion, for the facts of this case simply do not warrant a reexamination and overruling of this Court’s holding in Commonwealth v. English, 446 Pa. 161, 279 A.2d 4 (1971). It is not and has never been this Court’s practice to render *268advisory opinions. See, e. g., Mt. Lebanon v. County Bd. of Elections, 470 Pa. 317, 368 A.2d 648 (1977); Pa. Public Utility Comm. v. Allegheny County, 415 Pa. 313, 203 A.2d 544 (1964). Our function is to decide cases upon facts of record, not to pose and decide hypothetical issues in order to change a previous holding which some members of the Court may now consider unwise.
In denying appellant’s motions in arrest of judgment, the trial court expressly stated that it did not find credible appellant’s testimony that the decedent owed him a debt. Moreover, the court went on to observe that, even if the decedent had owed appellant a sum of money, appellant had no arguable claim of right to the rings which the decedent was wearing. Thus, under either of the views expressed in Commonwealth v. English, supra, appellant was guilty of robbery in taking by force that to which he had no claim of right. Manifestly, consideration of when and whether the existence of a bona fide claim of right may serve as a defense to a charge of robbery should await a case in which the defendant does, in fact, have such a claim. I therefore concur only in the result.
O’BRIEN, C. J., and NIX and WILKINSON, JJ., join this concurring opinion.