Court Opinion

ID: 9708001
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:27:06.621418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:41.128866
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
dissenting:
Consistent with the position espoused by this writer in Commonwealth v. Hawthorne, 364 Pa.Super. 125, 527 A.2d 559 (1987), and joined in by Montemuro and Watkins, JJ., I cannot endorse the Majority’s receptive embrace of the appellant’s appeal regarding his challenge of the discretionary aspects of his sentence. Accord Commonwealth v. Bogden, 364 Pa.Super. 300, 528 A.2d 168 (1987).
This Court pointed out that the appellant in Hawthorne, as had been the case in Commonwealth v. Tuladziecki, 513 Pa. 508, 522 A.2d 17 (1987), had divided the appellate brief into the following sections: 1) Statement of Jurisdiction; 2) Statement of Questions Involved; 3) Statement of the Case; 4) Summary of the Argument; and 5) Argument.
Nonetheless, the appellants’ failure in both Hawthorne and Tuladziecki to set down in a separate section (“somewhere”) in the brief a concise statement of reasons why their appeals should be granted was fatal, and this flaw could not be remedied by reference to the “argument on the *610merits” section without running afoul of the Rules of Appellate Procedure and 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781(b).
Instantly, the Majority is doing exactly what Tuladziecki ruled against, i.e., filling the absence of a separate section somewhere in an appellant’s brief reciting a “concise statement of reasons”/“substantial question” assailing the discretionary aspects of one’s sentence by looking to the “argument on the merits” section to fill the void, or, as is the case at bar, at the “summary of argument” section. I see no distinction whether resort is had to the latter instead of the former. I read Tuladziecki to condemn both.
Reference to either the “argument on the merits” or “summary of argument” in determining the presence of a “substantial question” that the sentence imposed is not appropriate under the Sentencing Code cannot be utilized to circumvent the clear language of the Tuladziecki calling for “precise” compliance with the applicable rules of procedure. 513 Pa. at 508, 522 A.2d at 17. As much was stated by this Court in Hawthorne; to-wit:
The Majority in Tuladziecki would appear to require the party (be it the Commonwealth or a defendant) appealing the discretionary aspects of a sentence to set forth “at some point” in his brief (preferably, immediately preceding the argument on the merits) reasons (“statement”) why an appeal should be granted. This is consistent with the treatment by the Rules of Appellate Procedure of one’s Notice of Appeal as a “petition for allowance of appeal” under the Sentencing Code (see Note to Pa.R.App.P. 902 and 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781(b)), which, in effect, defers the formal submission of a petition for allowance of appeal until the briefing stage. Tuladziecki, supra.
Once at the briefing stage, given Tuladziecki’s view that a “Notice” is the equivalent of a “petition”, we deem it advisable to look to Pa.R.App.P. 1115 for some direction as to the form and content one’s brief should take in perfecting an appeal from the discretionary aspects of a sentence. For example, Pa.R.App.P. 1115 requires that *611the petitioner list various items of information, one of which is a “concise statement of the reasons relied upon for allowance of an appeal.” Rule 1115(a)(5). The order in which it is to be included in the petition (which, instantly, would be one’s brief) is recommended, insofar as practicable, to be in the sequence which appears in the Rule. This has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as requiring the presentment and examination of such a statement of reasons “at some point” in this procedural maze, but always “prior to examination of and ruling on the merits of the issue of the appropriateness of the sentence[.]” 513 Pa. at 512, 522 A.2d at 19.
There can be no substitution for this “concise statement of reasons” by referring to the argument section of one’s brief, as appears to have occurred by the Superior Court panel in Tuladziecki and made mention of by Justice Larsen in footnote 2 of his dissent. To do so, according to the Majority in Tuladziecki, would be to permit an appellate court “to rely on its assessment of the argument on the merits of the issue to justify post hoc a determination that a substantial question exists.” 513 Pa. at 513, 522 A.2d at 19. Thus, an assessment of the merits of the issue(s) must be preceded by a demonstration by the appellant that a “substantial question” exists in the case on appeal.
364 Pa.Super. at 134, 527 A.2d at 563.
The Majority has appeared to act contrary to the teachings of Tuladziecki by utilizing the “summary of argument” section of the appellant’s brief to extrapolate a compliance with § 9781(b)’s substantial question requirement.
■ I read Tuladziecki to require the setting forth “somewhere” in one’s appellate brief a “concise statement of reasons”, sufficient to satisfy § 9781(b), questioning the discretionary aspects of the sentence issued, but certainly not under the guise of the “summary of argument” section can one say that this condition precedent has been satisfied in the wake of Tuladziecki.
*612There being no compliance with our Supreme Court’s pronouncement detailing the rigors of appellate briefing, which must be met with precision in the area of assaulting the discretionary aspects of one’s sentence, I would quash the appeal. See Hawthorne, supra. Because the Majority deems it proper to hold to the contrary, I must respectfully dissent.