Court Opinion

ID: 9516675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:48:42.367953+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:36.093690
License: Public Domain

dissenting.
The cause here is what is to be done if a Justice of the Peace refuses to find a prima facie case, notwithstanding that there is one at law. Such is the fact here. The Justice of the Peace discharged on grounds of credibility, that is he did not accept as true for prima facie purposes the prosecution’s evidence. As the majority holds, credibility at a preliminary hearing is not before the Justice of the Peace. The majority none the less orders a rehearing before a different magistrate. In the face of a clear disregard of the rule that credibility is not before a magistrate there seems no reason why appeal to the Common Pleas Court is not permissible. In Riggins Case, 435 Pa. 321, 254 A.2d 616 (1969), relied upon here, the court explicitly sanctioned an appeal to another “tribunal”. Why that Tribunal cannot be a Common Pleas Court is part of the impracticality outlined in the dissent of Mr. Justice Bell. In Riggins, whether the appeal to a Common Pleas Court is termed a certiorari or it is another “tribunal” in the Riggins sense, it would seem certainly the more practical.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins this dissenting opinion.