Court Opinion

ID: 9646447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:00:10.274659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:38.321906
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
My scrutiny of the record compels me to conclude, contrary to the Court, that the appellee herein was in fact found guilty of a violation of Section 903(c), not Section 903(a) of the Motor Vehicle Code,1 and that this was the correct finding under the evidence. I am also of the opinion, however, that the court of common pleas was in error in imposing a sentence appropriate to another violation of the Vehicle Code and not imposing the sentence called for by the penalty subsection.2 Thus I conclude that the majority is also at fault when it upholds the lesser penalty on the theory that appellee was convicted below not for a Section 903(c) violation but for a Section 903(a) violation. Because this decision seems to me to undermine enforcement of the important weight limitations of the Motor Vehicle Code, I feel it necessary to dissent.
The relevant portion of the Motor Vehicle Code is Section 903.3 Paragraph (a) of the section forbids the operation of any motor vehicle upon a Pennsylvania highway if the vehicle’s gross weight exceeds 73,280 pounds.4 Paragraph (c) of the section provides, in brief, that no vehicle shall be *57operated on a Pennsylvania highway with a gross weight in excess of its registered gross weight.5 Paragraph (k)6 pro*58vides for summary conviction for violation of the weight limitations in Section 903 and stipulates the fines which shall be imposed upon conviction. It also provides that if there are concurrent violations of more than one subsection of Section 903, “the penalty imposed shall be. for violation of that subsection which produces the greatest fine, but no penalty shall be imposed for violation of any other such subsection.”
On August 9, 1973, Charles W. Dunn, the appellee, was driving his 1969 White tractor-trailer five axle rig, loaded and with a gross weight later determined to be 73,700 pounds, on U.S. Route 1 in Bucks County. In Bensalem Township Mr. Dunn was stopped by a local police officer who led him to a nearby weighing station. Having determined that the vehicle was registered in New Jersey7 for a gross weight of only 50,000 pounds, the officer issued to appellee a traffic citation which described the nature of the offense as follows: “Overweight. Allowed 50000 #, weighs 73700 #.” A justice of the peace tried Dunn, found him guilty and fined him $4,700.8
*59Dunn appealed his conviction to the court of common pleas. After a de novo hearing, the trial judge found Dunn guilty of violating the Code and, as above stated, imposed a fine of $120. The Commonwealth appealed, arguing that the trial judge erred in holding that the penalty provisions of Section 903(k) were unconstitutional as applied to appellant, and that the penalty imposed was therefore incorrect as a matter of law.9
In support of its conclusion that the appellee was found guilty by the court of common pleas of a violation of Section 903(a) of the Code rather than of Section 903(c), the majority has quoted a portion of the colloquy between the trial judge and counsel which took place after the defendant had rested, and from this alone concludes that the trial judge found the defendant guilty only of a Section 903(a) violation. An examination of the entire record belies this conclusion.
*60In the first place, the notice of appeal from the summary judgment to the court of common pleas clearly noted that the appeal was from a conviction under Section 903(c) of the Code: it made no mention whatever of a Section 903(a) conviction. See record at p. 2. In the second place, at the trial de novo there was introduced the defendant’s statement made at the time of his arrest that, although he had known that his vehicle could have been registered for as much as 72,000 pounds in New Jersey, he had chosen to register at the lesser weight because of the lesser cost involved, and to pay only for a lower weight limit.
The majority quotes the remarks made by the trial judge at the conclusion of the trial as indicating that the guilty verdict pertained to a Section 903(a) violation because the overweight was found to be but 1700 pounds and the fine was fixed at but $120. See opinion of the Court, ante at 43. While admittedly the quoted colloquy is not entirely unambiguous, I cannot agree that it demonstrates that the trial court intended to or did in fact find the defendant guilty of a Section 903(a) violation rather than a Section 903(c) violation. It must be remembered that the evidence at the trial,10 including the defendant’s own admission, was clearly sufficient to support a conviction on the only offense with which Dunn had actually been charged.11 Looking, as properly we may,12 to the trial court’s opinion for interpretation *61of its action, it clearly appears that the reference to the 1700 pounds of overweight was intended as a reference to the method of calculating the applicable fine and that the offense involved was a Section 903(c) violation.13 Thus I cannot agree with the majority that a reading of the verdict colloquy in context shows that “it was not a verdict finding appellee guilty of violating the registration fee overweight *62provision,” ante at 61. To me it is plain that the verdict was just that.
Since I am convinced that the trial court in fact found Dunn guilty of a Section 903(c) violation, it is necessary now to examine the theory on which it based the penalty of $120 imposed for that violation.
The trial court’s opinion discloses that the penalty prescribed by Section 903(k) of the Code was deemed to be unconstitutional as applied to non-residents of Pennsylvania on two grounds: (1) it was a confiscatory measure and as such violated the due process clause; and (2) it violated foreign motorists’ rights to equal protection of the laws. Accordingly, the court believed that the overweight should be calculated as the difference between New Jersey’s maximum vehicle weight and the actual weight of appellee’s vehicle at the time he was arrested in Pennsylvania (1700 pounds).
There can be no doubt that Section 903(c) of the Motor Vehicle Code does apply to appellee’s vehicle, as it does to any motor vehicle regardless of where it is registered. Clearly the Commonwealth has the power to regulate the use of its roads in this manner.
“The purpose of the overweight provision^] ... is to protect the highways of the Commonwealth from damage and to insure the safety of those traveling upon the highways. Commonwealth v. Burall, 146 Pa.Super. 525, 22 A.2d 619 (1941); McDonald v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 210 F.2d 524 (3d Cir. 1954). The fine provision, of course, is designed to deter potential violators.” Commonwealth v. Smith, 409 Pa. 521, 525, 187 A.2d 267, 270 (1963).
In Commonwealth v. Smith, supra, we specifically rejected the argument that the schedule of fines mandated by Section 903(k) was excessive or unreasonable in light of its purpose. I would reaffirm that ruling today and, in addition, hold that imposition of such fines on drivers of vehicles registered outside of this Commonwealth does not involve any equal protection problem; a driver of a vehicle registered in this Commonwealth with a total load of 23,700 *63pounds in excess of its registered gross weight would obviously be subject to exactly the same penalty as should have been imposed upon this appellee as a driver of a foreign vehicle.
I agree with the Commonwealth that the provisions of Section 903(k) are mandatory and that no discretion as to the amount of the fine to be imposed is left to the courts. Thus the modification of the fine made by the trial court and today approved by this Court was without authority.
I would affirm the conviction of appellee under Section 903(c) of the Motor Vehicle Code and remand to the trial court to impose a fine in accordance with Section 903(k) of the Code, viz., $2,350.

. Act of April 29, 1959, P.L. 58, § 101 et seq., as amended, 75 P.S. § 101 et seq. By the Act of June 17, 1976, P.L. 162, No. 81, § 1, the legislature renumbered former § 903(a) as 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 4941 and § 903(c) as § 4942. The text of both provisions is substantially unchanged. For the sake of convenience, this opinion will continue to use the section numbers that were in effect at the time of the commission of the violation under review.

. See notes 6 and 8, infra.

. 75 P.S. § 903, as amended (Supp. 1976-77), now 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 4941.

. Section 903(a) provides as follows:
“No motor vehicle, and no combination of which a motor vehicle is a part, shall, when operated upon a highway, have a gross weight exceeding seventy-three thousand two hundred eighty (73,-280) pounds.”

. Section 903(c), now renumbered as 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 4942, provides as follows:
“No combination of which a commercial motor vehicle or truck tractor having a registered gross weight is a part shall, when operated upon a highway, have a gross weight exceeding the sum of (1) the registered gross weight of the commercial motor vehicle or truck tractor plus (2) the registered gross weights, if any, of the other vehicles in the combination. This subsection shall not apply to a combination of a commercial motor vehicle or truck tractor and a mobilehome, house trailer, office trailer or a fertilizer trailer of less than ten thousand (10,000) pounds gross weight.”

. Section 903(k), now renumbered as 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 4945, provides as follows:
“None of the provisions of this section shall apply to fire department equipment or to a motor bus or motor omnibus.
“Penalty. — Any person operating any vehicle or combination, upon any highway, with a gross weight exceeding the maximum gross weight allowed therefore by subsection (a), or with a gross weight exceeding by more than three (3) percent the maximum gross weight allowed therefor by subsection (b), (c), (d) or (f.l), or with an axle or wheel weight exceeding by more than three (3) percent the maximum axle or wheel weight allowed therefor by subsection (g) or (h), shall, upon summary conviction before a magistrate, be sentenced to pay the costs of prosecution and a fine for all excess above the maximum weight allowed according to the following table:
The fine
“If the excess is shall be
Not over 3,000 pounds $ 60.00
Over 3,000 pounds, but not over 3,500 pounds, 120.00
Over 3,500 pounds, but not over 4,000 pounds, 140.00
Over 4,000 pounds, but not over 4,500 pounds, 240.00
Over 4,500 pounds, but not over 5,000 pounds, 270.00
Over 5,000 pounds, but not over 5,500 pounds, 400.00
Over 5,500 pounds, but not over 6,000 pounds, 440.00
Over 6,000 pounds, but not over 6,500 pounds, 600.00
“If the excess is over six thousand five hundred (6,500) pounds, the fine shall be six hundred dollars ($600.00) plus fifty dollars ($50.00) for each additional five hundred (500) pounds, or part thereof, over such six thousand five hundred (6,500) pounds: Provided, That in any case in which the gross weight of a combination exceeds seventy-three thousand two hundred eighty (73,280) pounds, the fine shall be double the amount determined as herein-above prescribed for other weight violations: And provided further, That in any case, in which there shall be concurrent violations of more than one (1) of the subsections of this section prescribing maximum weights, the penalty imposed shall be for violation of *58that subsection which produces the greatest fine, but no penalty shall be imposed for violation of any other such subsection.”

. Sections 401 and 410 of the Motor Vehicle Code, 75 P.S. §§ 401, 410, require that all vehicles operated on highways in this Commonwealth be registered here unless registered with another state with which Pennsylvania has a reciprocal agreement. According to CCH State Motor Carrier Guide *' 9539 at p. 5883, Pennsylvania has such reciprocal agreements with all other states except Arizona.

. This penalty was apparently calculated under Section 903(k) of the Code by doubling the appropriate fine for the single offense of driving a vehicle having a gross weight of 23,500-24,000 pounds in excess of its registered weight. See n.6, supra. This method of computation was in error. According to my calculation, the correct fine under Sections 903(c) and 903(k) would be $2,350. The miscalculation is explained as follows:
The penalty for a violation of both 903(a) and 903(c) at the same time is calculated according to the table established in Section 903(k) first by calculating the proper penalty for the violation of Section 903(c) only. In this case, the correct fine for the 23,700 pounds of weight in excess of appellee’s registered weight was $2,350. The alternative calculation for the violation of Section 903(a) by appellee shown by the same facts would be a total fine of $120; appellee’s truck was 420 pounds over the absolute maximum gross weight *59established by that section. The tables provide that the fine for an excess weight of up to 3,000 pounds is $60 and the first proviso requires that the fine for this subsection only shall be doubled so that the total fine would be $120. The last proviso to 903(k), see n.6, supra, requires that the violator pay only the larger of these two possible fines. It is not appropriate to double the fine set under 903(c) where a 903(a) violation is also involved because this would be imposing a fine for both violations, which the subsection specifically forbids. This is where, in my opinion, the justice of the peace fell into error.

. The trial court held that the penalty mandated by Section 903(k) of the code for a violation of 903(c) could not constitutionally be applied to a nonresident driver in Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth’s appeal from that order was erroneously filed in the Superior Court. See Appellate Court Jurisdiction Act, Act of July 31, 1970, P.L. 673, No. 223, § 202(9), 17 P.S. § 211.202(9) (Supp. 1977-78), which provides that this Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of appeals in “[mjatters where the court of common pleas has held invalid as repugnant to the Constitution ... of the United States . any act of Assembly of this Commonwealth . ” The Superior Court therefore properly transferred the appeal to this Court pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Appellate Court Jurisdiction Act, supra, 17 P.S. § 211.503(b).
The majority’s statement that “the prosecution has raised no issue concerning whether Section 903(c) can constitutionally be applied to a New Jersey resident,” opinion of the Court, ante at 47, is erroneous. What the Commonwealth calls “the alleged equal protection specter raised in this case” is discussed in its brief at pp. 10-11.

. The evidence was sufficient to have supported convictions for violation both of Section 903(a) and Section 903(c), although Dunn was charged only with the latter offense. His violation of paragraph (a) was driving a vehicle having a gross weight of 420 lbs. in excess of the maximum allowable for any vehicle; his violation of paragraph (c) was driving a vehicle having a gross weight of 23,700 pounds in excess of its registered weight.

. A defendant cannot, of course, be convicted of an offense with which he has not been charged. See, e. g., United States v. Petti, 459 F.2d 294 (3d Cir. 1972). 1 would give the trial judge in this case credit for awareness and observance of this fundamental principle.

. I cannot agree with the intimations in the opinion of the Court that the opinion of the trial court, merely because filed after this appeal was taken, is rendered suspect as a guide to what the trial judge intended and what was in fact accomplished at the time of rendering verdict and imposing sentence. Opinions of trial courts *61are not required unless and until an appeal is taken and the trial judge is duly notified of that fact. See Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a). The reason for requiring an opinion of the trial court, of course, is because of the assistance it may be to the appellate court in understanding the reasoning of the court of original jurisdiction in taking the actions complained of on appeal.

. The following excerpts from the opinion below are relevant:
“Under the testimony presented to the Hearing Judge, there was no question that the appellant was guilty of the offense charged. Section 903(c) provides:
‘No combination of which a commercial vehicle or truck tractor having a registered gross weight is a part shall, when operated upon a highway, have a gross weight exceeding the sum of (1) the registered gross weight of the commercial motor vehicle or truck tractor plus (2) the registered gross weights, if any, of the other vehicles in the combination. .
The appellant did in fact carry weight exceeding the 50,000 pounds for which his rig had been registered, and exceeding the permissible maximum of 73,280 pounds.” Record at 51a -52a.
The trial judge concluded:
“The attempt to levy a $4,700 penalty for such ail alleged infraction of Section 903(c) amounts to confiscation of the appellant’s property without due process of law and cannot be upheld. He [the trial judge] is of the opinion, as well, that the application of the overweight penalty provisions to the circumstances of this case reveals a clear violation and denial of the appellant’s equal protection rights.
“Having this view, and having found the appellant guilty of an overweight offense, he [the trial judge] applied the overweight penalty schedule using 72,000 pounds as a base on the perhaps erroneous assumption that such figure represented the apparent maximum weight registration allowed in the State of New Jersey He thus found the overweight to have been 1,700 pounds and the proper fine to be $120, the $60 minimum being doubled as provided in Section 903, by reason of the weight having exceeded the maximum allowable in the Commonwealth.” Record at 56a. (emphasis added).
The trial court went on to indicate that its overweight calculation should have been based on 73,280 pounds, not 72,000 pounds, although the resultant fine would be the same in either case.