Court Opinion

ID: 9751323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:20:58.041558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:42.781626
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice
(dissenting).
*58I.
Today’s result gives judicial sanction to a procedure I thought had never been embraced in American Jurisprudence and had long ago been discarded in English Jurisprudence. I agree with the opinion of the Superior Court that the in camera hearing between the Deputy Attorney General and the supervising judge that occurred in the instant case smacks of the much abhorred “star chamber” proceedings and fails to carry out the legislative provision for a hearing prior to the granting of immunity. For the reasons articulated below I must dissent.
The Act of November 22, 1968, P.L. 1080, 19 P.S. § 640.1 (Supp.1974-75), provides that:
“Organized crime or racketeering; order to testify If, in a proceeding relating to organized crime or racketeering before a court, grand jury or investigating body set up by legislative enactment or by order of the Governor, any person shall refuse to testify or to produce evidence of any other kind on the ground that his testimony or evidence may tend to incriminate him, that person may be ordered to give such testimony. The order to testify shall not be given except upon an order of court after a hearing in which the attorney general has established a need for the grant of immunity, as. hereinafter provided.” (Emphasis Supplied).
In Falone’s case, virtually the entire hearing was an in camera presentation of information to the supervising judge by a Deputy Attorney General. Falone requested a full adversary hearing at which both sides might present some form of evidence. The following comments by the supervising judge indicate he was fully aware of Falone’s position:
“I understand Mr. Fisher’s [Falone’s counsel] position and request. The answer is negative. I will not have *59an open hearing. I will not have the kind of evidentiary hearing that Mr. Fisher is suggesting. (R. 16a).”
In response to Falone’s objection the court stated:
“Now, during the course of that colloquy, it was made known to me by the deputy attorney general as to: A, the area of the proposed inquiry; B, the anticipation that the witness would in truth and in fact appropriately invoke his constitutional privilege; and C, that should that be the fact, that the deputy attorney general was prepared to submit a petition for the immunity.
“I questioned the deputy attorney general upon which any grant of immunity is sought. There was then a disclosure to me in camera of those which I have made reference. This doesn’t come to me as a bolt of lightning out of heaven, by an instantaneous act of spontaneous events, but with forewarning as to what we were about to have. ’ ’ (Emphasis added).
While it is obvious that the Court received its information from a mortal source, it is equally clear the appellee and his counsel would have been required to have had divine powers of perception to ascertain the minimum quantum of information pertaining to these proceedings to even resemble an adversary hearing. Such is not a requirement of our law. The effect of the Court’s rulings was to inhibit the defense in two respects; 1) the defense has not heard the case presented by the Deputy Attorney General and does not know what contentions to rebut or how to persuade the court to rule his way and 2) the record is insufficient for the defendant to formulate meaningful arguments on appeal and for an appellate court to decide whether the supervising judge exercised sound discretion. The appellee argues forcefully that the hearing he received was constitutionally inadequate because it did not comport with standards of due process required by the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Constitutions. More specifically, *60it is contended that the hearing provided for in 19 P.S. § 640.1, swpra, must include the production of evidence in an adversary posture and, at a minimum, must provide for a clear record in order for appellee to exercise his right to appeal in a meaningful fashion. Appellee finds the in camera procedure utilized here most objectionable for it deprives him of a realistic opportunity to contest the petition and deprives any appellate court of a record upon which to exercise meaningful appellate review. I agree. The in camera procedure resembles too closely the horrors of the inquisition.
In Unora v. Glen Alden Coal Company, 377 Pa. 7, 104 A.2d 104 (1954), we considered the adequacy of a hearing under the Pennsylvania Occupational Disease Act. In defining the parameters of a constitutionally adequate hearing we stated:
In law, where a controversy is involved, a hearing intends a judgment bench attended by judges or officials sitting in a judicial capacity, prepared to listen to both sides of the dispute and to consider deeply, reflect broadly, and decide impartially. Studying papers is not a hearing; passing on a report moving across one’s desk is not a hearing. The very genius of American jurisprudence shines in the opportunity it affords every litigant to present his case openly, publicly and untrammedly. This concept was well stated by the Supreme Court of Montana in the case of Grant v. Michaels, 94 Mont. 452, 23 P.2d 266: “The power ‘to “hear and determine” is an essential ingredient of jurisdiction, and the quoted words refer to a judicial investigation and settlement of an issue of fact, which implies the weighing of testimony offered on both sides, from a consideration of which the relief sought by the moving party is either granted or denied’ ”. (Emphasis supplied.)
The failure of the Medical Board to hear the claimants or their counsel is not merely an academic error; it is *61one of substance. A hearing is not granted to a litigant simply to provide him with a forum for rhetorical expression. The right to be heard constitutes not only the right to talk; it includes the right on the part of the litigant to listen to what the tribunal has to say and to offer advice and counsel. The right to be heard encompasses the right also to give ear to one’s adversary and to object, if necessary. 377 Pa. at 11-12, 104 A.2d at 106.
More recently, in West Alexander Borough Annexation Case, 450 Pa. 453, 301 A.2d 662 (1973), we reaffirmed the principles articulated in Unora v. Glen Alden Coal Company, supra. It appears to me that the in camera proceeding that took place in the instant case cannot begin to meet the due process standards that we in the past have required of a hearing in this Commonwealth.
The majority concedes that the hearing in the instant case was only a charade and could by no standards comport with the dictates of due process. They, however, attempt to avoid the consequences of this dilemma by rationalizing that the grant of immunity is not a deprivation of a right and therefore assert that no hearing was required. This argument, however, loses sight of the obvious fact that whether a hearing was required constitutionally or as a result of policy, it was nevertheless the intention of the legislature to provide such a right. This intention cannot be ignored through judicial interpretation.
Under the unambiguous language of § 640.1, it is clear that a hearing was required as an integral part of the procedure in the grant of immunity. It equally follows that since the instant charge of contempt is predicated upon a grant of immunity under this section, the alleged contemnor has a right to attack the validity of that grant.
Restated, with respect to contempt for failure to answer questions after a grant of immunity the legislature *62has, in essence, added the requirement that there be a hearing in which the Attorney General must establish a need for the grant of immunity. Even accepting, although I do not, the majority’s theory that the grant of immunity is not a deprivation of the prospective witnesses’ right, the hearing requirement mandated by the legislature remains unaltered. This fact was recognized by a plurality of this Court in Riccobene Appeal, 439 Pa. 404, 268 A.2d 104 (1970).1 In the late Chief Justice Bell’s opinion in Riccobene Appeal, supra, after alluding to the “benefit theory” we observed:
“The ultimate finding of need lies with the Court, and an opportunity is afforded a witness to a hearing and, if desired, a brief and an oral argument to support his contentions that there is no need in his particular case.” 404 Pa. at 417,268 A.2d at 111.
Even though a plurality of the Court indicated that the hearing was primarily between the Attorney General and the supervising judge it still required a hearing in which some evidence was produced in an adversary contest.2 The hearing in the instant case is far removed from the one in Riccobene Appeal, supra.
Furthermore, for appellee to have his right to a meaningful appeal pursuant to Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963), and Griffin v. *63Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956), an adequate record must be preserved for appeal. As Justice Roberts recently noted in writing for the majority in Commonwealth v. Young, 456 Pa. 102, 317 A.2d 258 (1974):
“ ‘Appellate review has become such an integral part of our criminal procedure that it may properly be viewed as an extension of the trial itself.’ Commonwealth ex rel. Neal v. Myers, 424 Pa. 576, 579 n. 3, 227 A.2d 845, 846 n. 3 (1967). The fundamental tool for appellate review is the official record of what occurred at trial. Only the facts that appear in this record may be considered by a court. As recently as McCaffrey v. Pittsburgh Athletic Association, 448 Pa. 151, 293 A.2d 51 (1972), this Court held that ‘it is black letter law that an appellate court cannot consider anything which is not a part of the record in the case.’ Id. at 162, 293 A.2d at 57. Consistent with our responsibility to view only the record facts, we cannot accept the assertions in the trial court’s written opinion that any reasonable doubt instruction was given other than that which appears in the record.
“Because of the impact that the reasonable doubt standard has on the ultimate resolution of a defendant’s guilt or innocence, the omission of an essential portion of a charge on reasonable doubt deprived appellant of a fair trial. Accordingly, appellant is entitled to a new trial. 456 Pa. at 114-116, 317 A.2d at 264.”
Here appellee comes before us alleging inequality in a proceeding which resulted in his conviction for contempt below. Needless to say, for us to adequately review appellee’s present claims, particularly those relating to whether the instant proceeding was one relating to organized crime and/or racketeering and whether there was a need for immunity, we must have access to what transpired in the in camera hearing. Without such ac*64cess preserved by an adequate record, we cannot exercise our judicial function which in this case requires us to determine whether the immunity was properly conferred, thus placing upon him the duty to speak. The majority, however, has proceeded to make the finding that his refusal to speak was contemptuous without a scintilla of evidence before it to determine the pivotal question of whether the immunity had been properly granted.
II.
My second major objection to today’s result is with the construction the majority gives to § 640.6. This section provides in pertinent part:
“As used in this act—
‘Organized crime’ and ‘racketeering’ shall include, but not be limited to, conspiracy to commit murder, bribery or extortion, narcotic or dangerous drug violations, prostitution, usury, subornation of perjury and lottery, bookmaking or other forms of organized gambling.” 19 P.S. § 640.6.
It is beyond me how the term conspiracy in this statute can be construed to modify only the crime of murder. It seems clear to me that the legislative intent was to grant immunity only in those cases where there was a true conspiracy to commit the substantive offenses listed therein. The principal evil the Act sought to cure was vast networks of well conceived criminal ventures by those involved in organized crime. To find, as the majority does today, that conspiracy modified only the substantive crime of murder and to support this finding by reasoning that the legislature intended to grant immunity when the substantive crimes of bribery and narcotics offenses were committed, defies logic. This reasoning would leave the substantive crime of murder unreachable under this Act. My construction would include all of the crimes listed as long as there was a conspiracy to commit them.
*65Moreover, in reaching their conclusion the majority relies on a technique of statutory construction unknown to me — namely, definition by reference to subsequent legislation. In the Rules of Construction, Act of November 25, 1970, P.L. 707, No. 230, added 1972, Dec. 6, No. 290, § 3, 1 P.S. § 1921(c), the legislature provided for techniques of statutory construction. Subdivision (c) provides :
“(c) When the words of the statute are not explicit, the intention of the General Assembly may be ascertained by considering, among other matters:
(1) The occasion and necessity for the statute.
(2) The circumstances under which it was enacted.
(3) The mischief to be remedied.
(4) The object to be attained.
(5) The former law, if any, including other statutes upon the same or similar subjects.
(6) The consequences of a particular interpretation.
(7) The contemporaneous legislative history.
(8) Legislative and administrative interpretations of such statutes.”
Where the legislature has obviously given careful thought to the types of techniques available in statutory construction and has specifically enumerated eight separate ones including one that former law on similar subjects may be used as a reference and, yet, never mentions the possibility of using subsequent law, I believe it should not be used. The inference suggested by the majority as to the construction of § 640.6, supra, does not correspond to the true spirit of the statute.
For these reasons I must dissent from today’s result.
EAGEN, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. In Riccobene Appeal, 439 Pa. 404, 268 A.2d 104 (1970), three Justices joined an opinion by Chief Justice Bell; one Justice concurred in the result and three Justices dissented. Thus, as a plurality opinion the decision carries no binding precedential weight.

. It is clear that the bearing in Riccobene Appeal, supra, was infinitely more expansive than that permitted in the instant case. “To further substantiate this need the District Attorney presented Sergeant William Smith, of the Intelligence Unit of the District Attorney’s office. Sergeant Smith testified that for over a year he had been investigating transactions relating to the Whitman Urban Renewal Area. He further testified that he had received information that the proposed witness, Mario Riccobene, was a witness to a bribe paid by one Angelo Bruno to a public official of the City of Philadelphia to influence official conduct to benefit land owned by Bruno and others within the Whitman Urban Renewal Area.” 404 Pa. at 419, 268 A.2d at 112.