Court Opinion

ID: 9759629
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:22:33.278849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:03.548864
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Watkins, J.:
I cannot agree with the majority that the court below had jurisdiction and would reverse.
It is a general common law rule that crimes are cognizable and punishable only within the jurisdiction *450where they have been committed. The locus of a crime is always at issue, for a court has no jurisdiction of the offense unless committed in the county where tried. Com. v. Mull, 316 Pa. 424, 175 A. 418 (1934). When the defendant questioned the jurisdiction of the court, venue became a distinct issue of fact and the burden was on the Commonwealth of proving venue. Com. v. Wojdakowski, 161 Pa. Superior Ct. 250, 53 A. 2d 851 (1947); Com. ex rel. Koffel v. Myers, 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 270, 275, 133 A. 2d 570 (1957).
Here, there is no question about the facts in issue. The defendant made the alleged threats in Allegheny County, by telephone, to the prosecutor in Westmoreland County, so that the only way the venue could have been said to be in Westmoreland County was a determination that the crime was committed where the threat was received. This we believe to be untenable, and the argument of the defendant that the threat by telephone could have been made by a person residing in California or England and to compel such a person to stand trial for the charge, certainly approaches reductio ad absurdum.
The offense of surety of the peace has only one element and that is the overt act of making the threat. Making a threat always requires some means of delivering the threat to the one threatened, whether verbally, in writing, by telephone, by mail or other means of transmission. The offense does not require anything other than the making of the threat and is complete upon proof that the one threatened was reasonably put in fear of being hurt in body or estate.
A threat is defined as “A declaration of intention or determination to inflict punishment, loss or pain on another, or to injure another by the commission of some unlawful act.” Black’s Law Dictionary, page 1651. The nature of the offense of surety of the peace *451is quasi criminal. In a criminal case you seek punishment for a crime committed while in surety cases you seek to prevent the commission of a crime. Once the threat to commit the crime of assault and battery was made by the telephone call to the threatened party, the overt act was completed and the action of the aggrieved party is taken to prevent the commission of the crime threatened.
The standard required under which the act shall operate to determine “putting in fear”, provides that the complaining party’s danger of being hurt in body or estate be actual and that the threats made be malicious with intent to do harm. Com. v. Cushard, 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 193, 132 A. 2d 366 (1957). This all takes place at the hearing but the threat is the gist of the offense and the foundation of the action. Proof under the act is required that the one threatened be reasonably put in fear of being hurt in body or estate. It is, however, the threat emanating from Pittsburgh that triggers the emotional result of the threat. It seems to follow too, that the farther away the threat originates, the less likelihood there is of the recipient being reasonably put in fear. The place where it is made is the locus of the crime.
This is the reasonable interpretation of the act and the intention of the legislature to follow the general common law rule is indicated in the original Act 1700, 1 Smiths Laws 5, which provided that the defendant was bound “to appear at the next Session of County Court, to be holden for the county where such offense was committed.”
The analogy of an offer and acceptance of a contract does not apply here. Certainly a contract is not complete until a meeting of the minds is evidenced by an acceptance, but the fact that a contract does not result because of nonacceptance does not eliminate the *452fact that an offer actually was made. In the case of surety of the peace the offer in the form of a threat to commit a crime is the crux of the offense.
The offense, originally and in most eases today contemplated a threat made by one person to another in the same locality, so there was no question of long distance threats where venue became an issue. Distance by its very nature, between the parties, may of itself raise a serious doubt as to the reasonableness of being put in fear.
In the business world of today where most negotiations are carried out by mail and telephone, heated language is the ordinary, everyday occurrence. In most instances, however, although the language may be threatening, there is no malicious intent to carry out its purport and the recipient is certainly not reasonably put in fear.
Yet, the reasoning of the majority invites a disappointed competitor or a disgruntled customer, not for the purpose of preventing the commission of a crime but out of sheer spite or revenge, to cause expense, inconvenience and public embarrassment by bringing a party across the State to answer a criminal charge before a friendly local Justice of the Peace.
The common sense approach to the problem, as advocated by this opinion, is well illustrated by Federal Statutes dealing with similar problems. The Federal Statutes in question involve interstate communications containing threats to kidnap or injure another person for the purpose of extortion, 18 U.S.C.A. 875 and mailing threatening communications with intent to extort, 18 U.S.C.A. 876. The statute further provides that any defendant indicted under these statutes “be entitled as of right to be tried in the district in which the matter mailed or otherwise transmitted was first *453set in motion, in the mails, oi* in commerce between the States.” 18 TT.S.C.A. 3239.
Venue should be certain or made certain, wherever possible, in all legal proceedings, either criminal or civil in nature. Both the historical concept and the legislative intent substantiate the proposition that the offense was committed in Allegheny County and the court below was without jurisdiction.