Court Opinion

ID: 9645301
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:20:03.405605+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:26.820280
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Price, J.:
Without reaching the merits of the appeal, I would reverse the action of the lower court due to a procedural error.
The docket entries most immediately relevant to the present case indicate that on July 26, 1974, appellants filed a petition in the lower court to replace the district attorney with a private prosecutor. This petition was denied by the trial court by order dated December 2, 1974. Appellants appealed this denial to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and on December 20, 1974, certiorari was granted.1 This divested the lower court of *443jurisdiction over the case. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 431 Pa. 522, 246 A.2d 345 (1968); DeMatteo v. White, 233 Pa. Superior Ct. 339, 336 A.2d 355 (1975).
However, on December 30, 1974, the lower court accepted a guilty plea and sentenced the defendant. Because jurisdiction rested with the supreme court at that time, the lower court had no power over the proceedings and could not dispose of the case. The proceedings in the lower court were a nullity during the pendency of that appeal.
The guilty plea was improperly accepted and sentence could not have been imposed. I would remand the case for a proper determination of the defendant’s guilt and a proper sentence.
Again, without reaching the merits, I must also note an inconsistency in the majority opinion. At the outset, the majority acknowledges that the facts of the case are “sketchy,” but later concludes that “the posture of this case compels the conclusion that the lower court acted properly in denying the petition.” (Majority opinion at page 439). When faced with evidence as “sketchy,” as well as conflicting, as that found here, the action of the lower court does not immediately appear to comply with the American Bar Association standards discussed by the majority. Under the circumstances of the instant case, we should not so readily affirm the actions of the lower court. Reversing and remanding would be neither senseless nor would it simply ensure jurisdictional adequacy, but is rather mandated in this situation.

. That appeal, which was on March 5, 1975, transferred to this court, is the appeal at 419 April Term, 1975. Two subsequent appeals were taken to the supreme court and also transferred to this court, the *443appeal at 420 April Term, 1975 from an order of the lower court entered December 23, 1975, and the appeal at 421 April Term, 1975 from the proceedings in the lower court on December 30, 1975.