Court Opinion

ID: 9698469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:51:34.665594+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:41.205037
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the result reached by the majority, but I suggest that it may be more helpful to state the issue in terms of subject matter jurisdiction, rather than legality of sentence.
Before appellant pleaded guilty, the following colloquy occurred between her and her attorney:
Q. Miss Longo, the charge you have been charged with, Retail Theft, as I have stated, now, this is your third *505offense for Retail Theft. The grading of the crimes is a third degree felony. Do you understand that?
A. Yes.
Q. And that it carries with it a maximum penalty of seven (7) years in jail and a $15,000 fine. Do you understand that?
A. Yes.
N.T. 12, June 21, 1977
A plea of guilty constitutes a waiver of all nonjurisdictional defects. See Commonwealth v. Riviera, 254 Pa.Super. 196, 385 A.2d 976 (1978); Commonwealth v. Garrett, 425 Pa. 594, 597, 229 A.2d 922, 924 (1967). However, “[a]n objection to lack of subject-matter jurisdiction can never be waived.” Commonwealth v. Little, 455 Pa. 163, 167, 314 A.2d 270, 272 (1974). For a Court of Common Pleas to have such jurisdiction, “it is necessary that the Commonwealth confront the defendant with a formal and specific accusation of the crimes charged.” 455 Pa. at 168, 314 A.2d at 273. Here, the lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain appellant’s plea to retail theft as a third offense, or to sentence her for that offense, because, as the majority says, she was never charged with it, the information instead only charging retail theft without reference to any prior offenses.