Court Opinion

ID: 9698027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:39:53.253901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:37.750801
License: Public Domain

CAVANAUGH, Judge,
dissenting:
While I appreciate the majority’s careful and prudent consideration of this important issue, I am constrained to disagree since the present appeal represents a deviation from bedrock principles of appellate review which, if followed in other cases, could dramatically engender improper pre-trial appellate consideration of problematic evidentiary issues anticipated to arise at trial by the Commonwealth. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent.
Initially, I recognize that the majority is facially correct in finding both appeals are properly before this Court. The case Commonwealth v. Cohen, 529 Pa. 552, 605 A.2d 1212 (1992), grants the Commonwealth a pre-trial right of appeal from rulings in limine which it certifies has the effect of terminating or substantially handicapping its prosecution. Id. at 557, 605 A.2d at 1215. I differ, however, with the majority’s analysis stating that the Commonwealth’s motion was correctly before the trial court for consideration and disposition. I believe that the majority’s analysis allows the Commonwealth, by filing pre-trial a motion concerning the appellee’s Columbia *184County convictions, to obtain a ruling by this Court which should otherwise not be available. I find the case sub judice represents an abuse of the Cohen doctrine1 in that the Commonwealth did not comply with the trial court’s December 29 ruling.
In Commonwealth v. Pikur Enterprises, 142 Pa.Commw. 114, 596 A.2d 1253 (1991), the Commonwealth Court set forth the proper definition of an in limine motion as:
An in limine motion is a motion or petition submitted to the court in a pending matter either pretrial or during trial whereby exclusion is sought of anticipated prejudicial evidence, keeping extraneous issues out of the underlying proceeding, precluding reference to prejudicial matters, or preventing encumbering the record with immaterial matter. A trial court may or may not in its discretion, entertain such in limine motions and the denial thereof cannot in and of itself constitute reversible error since those matters seeking to be precluded have not been presented to the factfinder and may never reach the factfinder.
Id. at 127, 596 A.2d at 1259 (emphasis added).
In the case sub judice, the defendanf/appellee successfully obtained the in limine order precluding evidence of his Columbia County convictions from being introduced at the pending Montour County trial. Presiding Judge Greevy, in his December 29 disposition of appellee’s motion in limine, correctly opined that “if the Prosecution can show common scheme, plan, or design, or motive, the Court will receive an offer at trial, and determine whether the probative value of such testimony outweighs the prejudicial impact ...” (emphasis added).
I believe the Commonwealth disregarded the court’s ruling and did not follow proper in limine practice. Instead of *185waiting to make an offer of proof at trial, as instructed by the court, the Commonwealth, seeking to introduce appellee’s Columbia County convictions, presented the court with a pretrial motion styled as a Motion for Allowance of Testimony. When the court refused to reverse its earlier December 29 ruling, the Commonwealth took the present appeal. I believe that the proper in limine practice would have been for the Commonwealth to make an offer of proof at trial and achieve a ruling in that setting. Further, the Pikur case, supra, set forth correctly that denial of an in limine motion is not appealable where the issue may be re-presented to the fact finder at trial.2
The danger in this situation for this Court to act upon an in limine motion is that we have no way of understanding the full evidentiary impact of the proposed evidence. At trial, however, contestants can present such evidence in its totality with other relevant factual evidence. The hazards for this Court to rule upon an in limine motion are particularly acute *186in the present case. We are forced to speculate and to rule upon whether the scheme, plan or design for bizarre sexual conduct which occurred in Columbia County is similar to the sexual conduct that allegedly occurred in Montour County. I would therefore hold that the Cohen doctrine, supra, does not extend to in limine rulings on the admissibility of evidence where the Commonwealth, (appropriately) is given the opportunity to re-present the issue at trial.
The net result is that I would quash the appeal of these two orders. The first because it is not a final order, i.e. the order by its terms permitted reconsideration at trial. I would further quash the second because there is no provision in our law for the Commonwealth to seek a pre-trial order for the admission of testimony in order to create an appeal issue if denied.
For the foregoing reasons, I believe this present appeal should be quashed.

. I note that in Cohen, the proffered evidence for the pending trial related to the existence of a child and applicability of the collateral estoppel doctrine. On appeal to our Supreme Court, both disputed evidence issues in Cohen were resolved using existing records and basic principles of law. In the case at bar, a proper decision requires the trial court during trial to hear all the relevant evidence and for contestants to make detailed offers of proof in the trial setting.

. Our sister states have also noted that a denial of an in limine motion is not appealable since the evidentiary issue may be re-presented to the fact finder at trial. Cf. State v. Hill, 37 Ohio App.3d 72, 523 N.E.2d 894, 898 (1987), where the court stated:
A grant of a motion in limine does not determine the admissibility of the evidence under consideration, but instead suspends questions about the subject until the court can determine under the circumstances whether the evidence would be admissible. The grant is interlocutory, malleable in the discretion of the trial court.
Id. (emphasis added). See Boyd v. State, Ind., 494 N.E.2d 284, 303 (1986), where the court defined an in limine order as:
a temporary order to suspend or prevent the imposition of a subject into evidence without first having the court review the proposed subject outside the presence of the jury. If the court had granted the motions in limine when asked for, it would have delayed a ruling on the subject until the occasion arose for the offering of such evidence. The granting of a motion in limine does not conclusively rule that that evidence will not be permitted.
Id. (emphasis added). See also Braden v. Hendricks, Okl., 695 P.2d 1343, 1348 (1985), where the court stated:
If the evidence is excluded by an in limine ruling, the party seeking to introduce it must at trial — out of the hearing of the jury — make an offer to show for the record the essence of testimony sought to be elicited. In this manner the trial court is afforded an opportunity to make its in-trial ruling upon the issue in contention.
Id. (emphasis added).