Court Opinion

ID: 9533806
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:34:42.388137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:10.816264
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CAPPY
dissenting.
The majority reinstates Appellee’s conviction under the Pennsylvania Corrupt Organizations Act (“PaCOA”), 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 911, despite the absence of any evidence that Appellee is engaged in organized crime. The Majority posits that this result is required by its reading of the plain language of the PaCOA as specifically amended in response to the decision of this court in Commonwealth v. Bobitski, 534 Pa. 310, 632 A.2d 1294 (1993). (Majority opinion at p. 116, 876 A.2d at p. 372). As I cannot accept the Majority’s position that the plain language of the amended Act requires this result, I respectfully dissent.
First, I note that the amendment in question occurred in June of 1996 and was specifically directed to the decision of this court in Commonwealth v. Besch, 544 Pa. 1, 674 A.2d 655 (1996),1 not the earlier unanimous decision in Bobitski. See*118ond, the amended language does not require an interpretation of the Act that divorces its operative intent, the ferreting out of organized crime, from its current application, the conviction of a person with no ties to organized crime.
When construing a-statute, this court is guided by the rules set forth by the legislature. See, 1 Pa.C.S.A.1901 et. seq. The first of these rules establishes the basic principle by which the remainder of the rules of statutory construction must be applied. That rule provides:
In the construction of the statutes of this Commonwealth, the rules set forth in this chapter shall be observed, unless the application of such rules would result in a construction inconsistent with the manifest intent of the General Assembly.
1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1901.
This principle guided us in our analysis in Bobitski. Bobitski was an employee of Thrift Drug who used his position within the business to solicit bribes from various contractors. There was no evidence linking Bobitski to organized crime. In reversing the conviction in Bobitski, we examined the statute in depth, noting with great deference, the long detailed preamble the legislature set forth. Bobitski, 632 A.2d at 1296. Because of the care and detail offered by the legislature in the section titled “Findings of fact,” 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 911(a), the purpose, scope, and intent of PaCOA were explicitly outlined. That purpose was to ferret out and severely punish persons engaged in organized crime “as that term is commonly used.” Bobitski, 632 A.2d at 1296. The Bobitski court unanimously rejected an interpretation of PaCOA that would permit the Commonwealth to use the statute as a means to enhance the penalty of any person who could conceivably, through an overly broad interpretation fall within its reach. Id. at 1297.
This court again examined PaCOA in Besch. In that instance, the court was faced with a wholly illegal criminal *119enterprise, narcotics distribution, and no evidence that the drug dealers uncovered in that investigation had any contacts with organized crime. Besch, 674 A.2d at 661. Focusing our decision on the words of the legislature, we observed that as written, the statute only discussed the operation and infiltration of legitimate business enterprises. Id. at 659. We were constrained by the clear directive of the language of the statute to apply it narrowly, and accordingly, reversed the convictions. Id. at 661.
*118amendments were required in response to the decision in Besch, wherein this court had found that the Act did not apply to wholly illegitimate criminal enterprises. See, S.B. 1172, 180th Legis.; Pa. Legis. Journal No. 36, at. pp. 2028-2029.
*119In direct response to the decision in Besch, the legislature amended PaCOA to extend the reach of PaCOA beyond the infiltration of organized crime into legitimate businesses and to capture any wholly illegitimate enterprises run for profit through a pattern of racketeering activity. See 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 911(h)(3) (revising the definition of “enterprise” was revised to include legitimate as well as illegitimate entities), Historical and Statutory notes, of the 1996 amendment, June 19, P.L. 342, No. 55, § 1, imd. effective. The amendment specifically addressed the question before the court in Besch; it did not alter the validity of the reasoning employed by this court in Bobitski. Thus, the purpose and intent of PaCOA as recognized and effectuated in Bobitski, is as viable today as it was when that decision was announced.
In applying this law to the matter sub judice, we note that the evidence as adduced by the Commonwealth established that Appellee is the owner of a clothing store, a legitimate business enterprise. In the store, she maintained a supply of unadvertised items secreted behind the counter. Appellee and her employee sold this inventory of hidden drug paraphernalia in violation of the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. 35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30). (“The Drug Act”). A person can commit racketeering activity by violating the Drug Act. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 911(h)(1)(h). Because of the fact that Appellee committed her crime from her business enterprise, she was charged under PaCOA for conducting her business through a pattern of racketeering activity. 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 911(b)(3) and (b)(4).
*120Yet there is no evidence that Appellee operated her business through the use of force, fraud, corruption, violence or intimidation, or that she or her business were connected to organized crime in any fashion as that term is used within PaCOA. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 911(a). By simply plugging the crimes charged into the fact of the location of the criminal activity the majority arrives at the conclusion that Appellee’s actions fit within the framework of PaCOA and reinstates the conviction. The majority’s application of PaCOA to these facts undercuts the purpose and intent of PaCOA.
By interpreting this statute in a fashion that utilizes its words to reach a result unintended by the manifest intent of the legislature, the Majority is undoing what the legislature worked so diligently to do in the first place. This piece of legislation was never designed to enhance the penalty of any average criminal; it was cleverly and intelligently drafted to seek out and punish a specific segment of the society engaged in the heinous and nefarious business of organized crime. To assert that a conviction of the Appellee in this case reflects the plain language of PaCOA when such a result completely ignores the established legislative intent of the statute sets the concept of statutory construction on its head.
For the reasons stated above, I cannot endorse the rationale or result of the majority; accordingly, I am compelled to dissent.
Justices CASTILLE and NIGRO join this dissenting opinion.

. 1996, June, P.L. 342, No. 55, § 1, imd. effective. As directly noted in the remarks of then Senator Fisher on the floor of the Senate, the