Court Opinion

ID: 9710098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:01:58.91057+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:54.196320
License: Public Domain

*41TAMILIA, Judge, dissenting:
This appeal involves the appealability of a case dismissed by the trial court after the district attorney was unable to produce the essential witness on the day of trial and the trial court refused to grant a one-day continuation to do so. The case does not implicate the diligence of the district attorney in producing the witness, who had not been subpoenaed for that day, as appellee had previously agreed to enter a guilty plea, but on the day of the plea decided to go to trial. The majority would hold the case is not appealable as the district attorney is able to refile the case as it was not dismissed with prejudice nor has the statute of limitations run.
Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 341 determines the appealability of Orders and it is beyond question that the Commonwealth may only appeal from a final Order in a criminal case in the circumstances provided by law. Pa.R.A.P. 341(e).
The majority, relying on Commonwealth v. LaBelle, 531 Pa. 256, 612 A.2d 418 (1992), finds the Commonwealth is precluded from appealing as the dismissal resulting from the Order may be cured, therefore the Order is interlocutory and appeal does not lie as the proper remedy under these circumstances is to refile the case.
The essence of this case is whether, upon refiling the matter, it would be barred by res judicata because the Commonwealth failed to present a prima facie case when called upon to do so, when it could be argued that it was derelict in not presenting an essential witness at the time of trial. I believe there is a significant difference in the situation where the Commonwealth presented its case in toto, particularly at the magistrate’s level, and was found wanting, and the situation, as here, where the case was dismissed when the opportunity to present a prima facie case was denied by the trial court’s arbitrary dismissal of the case. I believe failure to appeal such a decision could well subject the district attorney to a subsequent dismissal upon refiling, for failure to take a timely appeal.
*42It also is likely that in situations such as this the time that will have elapsed from trial and appeal to refiling and a second trial will be of greater duration and could more likely result in prejudice than remand for immediate retrial. At the magisterial level, refiling does not present the same problem of witness and evidentiary availability as does the case which is dismissed at the trial level.
I would reverse and remand for trial.
POPOVICH, J., joins dissenting statement by TAMILIA, J.