Court Opinion

ID: 9695208
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:12:01.237768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:10.005746
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
dissenting:
The view of the majority is presented in such thoughtful fashion and has been so readily embraced by all of my colleagues that I am hesitant to offer a differing view. Moreover, one must be slow to undertake an inquiry that will enable a culprit to evade a reckoning.1 Nonetheless, I dissent.
There can be no disagreement with the statement of the majority that the legislature possesses the power and the authority to promulgate a new statute of limitations applicable to offenses committed prior to the effective date of the new statute. Nor can there be disagreement that application of the new five year statute of limitations to the instant prosecution would not violate the prohibition against ex post facto laws. Cf. Commonwealth v. Guimento, 341 Pa.Super. 95, 491 A.2d 166 (1985).
The issue presented by this appeal, however, is whether the legislature intended the Act of May 13, 1982, P.L. 417, No. 122, § 1, (hereinafter “Act 122”) to apply to crimes committed prior to July of 1982. Act 122 itself does not contain an explicit expression of the intention of the legislature concerning the applicability of the statute to crimes committed before its effective date. Section 1926 of the Statutory Construction Act, however, provides that “no statute shall be construed to be retroactive unless clearly and manifestly so intended by the General Assembly.” 1 Pa.C.S. § 1926. Our Supreme Court has also held that “[statutes of limitations are of course liberally construed in favor of the defendant and against the Commonwealth.” Commonwealth v. Cardonick, 448 Pa. 322, 330, 292 A.2d *299402, 407 (1972). The majority, recognizing these well settled principles, holds that application of the five year statute of limitations to crimes committed before its effective date is required by the express terms of Act 122, and is a prospective application of the statute rather than a retroactive application. The majority reaches this conclusion in the following fashion:
The precise terms of Act 122 are that “a prosecution for [rape] must be commenced within five years after it is committed.”
The object “to which the new five year period applies is
the commencement of a prosecution
The Act is, therefore, prospective in nature.
As logical as this analysis may appear, it causes one to ask, if the application of Act 122 to a crime committed prior to its effective date is a prospective application of the statute, what would ever constitute a retroactive application of a statute of limitations?
The issue of whether the application of a particular statute is retroactive or prospective is not easily resolved. The same general assembly which amended 42 Pa.C.S. § 5552(b) by Act 122 again amended Section 5552(b) some seven months later, and provided for a new, five year statute of limitations for offenses arising under the Public Welfare Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 5552(b)(4). See: Act of December 20, 1982, P.L. 1409, No. 326, Art. II, § 201 (hereinafter “Act 326”). In Section 403 of Act 326, the legislature expressly provided that the new statute of limitations would “apply only to causes of action which accrue after the effective date of this act.” Section 403 of Act 326 provides for what I suggest is a truely prospective application of a new statute of limitations.2
*300The argument of the majority, that application of the five year statute is prospective rather than retroactive, resembles the reasoning of the eminent Justice Larsen in his dissent in Commonwealth v. Story, 497 Pa. 273, 440 A.2d 488 (1981): “We need not concern ourselves, however, with [1 Pa.C.] § 1926 as there has been no retroactive application of the statute. Application of a sentencing procedure enacted in 1978 to a conviction rendered in 1979 can in no way be viewed as retroactive.” Commonwealth v. Story, supra, 497 Pa. at 306, 440 A.2d at 505 (Dissenting Opinion by Larsen, J.) (emphasis in original). The majority in Story, however, held that application of the sentencing procedures established by the Act of September 13, 1978, to a crime occurring in 1974 would be retroactive, and refused to apply the act retroactively:
That the Legislature did not intend the Act of September 13, 1978, to apply to an offense committed in 1974 is obvious from this Court’s interpretation of the legislature’s express mandate that ‘no statute shall be construed to be retroactive unless clearly and manifestly so intended by the General Assembly.’ 1 Pa.C.S. § 1926.
The prohibition against a retroactive construction of a statute is longstanding. The Statutory Construction Act of 1937 contained the identical prohibition, Act of May 28, 1937, P.L. 1019, § 56, formerly 46 P.S. § 556 (1969), as did our case law as early as 1837. Oliphant v. Smith, 6 Watts 449, 451.
Even where the General Assembly intends a retroactive construction, the statute is to be “strictly construed.” 1 Pa.C.S. § 1928(b)(2).
In no area is the prohibition against retroactive construction more strongly mandated than in the criminal law. Emphasizing the prohibition contained in the Statutory Construction Act, the act which implements the Crimes Code adds:
“Title 18 of the Consolidated Pennsylvania Statutes (relating to crimes and offenses), as added by this act, *301does not apply to offenses committed prior to the effective date of this act____ For the purposes of this section, an offense was committed prior to the effective date of this act if any of the elements of the offenses occurred prior thereto.”
Commonwealth v. Story, supra, 497 Pa. at 276, 440 A.2d at 489. (Opinion by Justice Roberts, joined by Chief Justice O’Brien and Justice Wilkinson).3 See also: Bacchetta v. Bacchetta, 498 Pa. 227, 236, 240, 445 A.2d 1194, 1199 and 1201 (1982) (Dissenting Opinions of Chief Justice Nix and Justice Flaherty); Misitis v. Steel City Piping Company, 441 Pa. 339, 340, 272 A.2d 883, 883 (1971).
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in United States v. Richardson, 512 F.2d 105 (3rd Cir.1975), was faced with the precise issue presently before this Court. The Court of Appeals there held:
The question is one of ascertaining congressional intent. Congress, of course, has the power to extend the period of limitations without running afoul of the ex post facto clause, provided the period has not already run. Falter v. United States, 23 F.2d 420, 425-26 (2d Cir.1928). Criminal statutes of limitations, however, are to be interpreted in favor of repose. Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. at 115, 90 S.Ct. 858.
Moreover, a law is presumed to operate prospectively in the absence of a clear expression to the contrary. Hassett v. Welch, 303 U.S. 303, 314, 58 S.Ct. 559, [564], 82 L.Ed. 858 (1938). Therefore, we must decline to hold that Congress in fact has exercised its power to extend the limitations period in the instant case, unless we discern a clear intention on the part of Congress that section 462(d) should apply to offenses committed before September 28, 1971.
*302The language of section 462(d) is silent on this point. Although the legislative history of the statute indicates that Congress wished to overcome the decision in Toussie, it does not indicate, contrary to the Government’s contention, whether the new statute of limitations is to apply to offenses occurring before the statute’s enactment. We therefore hold that section 462(d) applies only to offenses committed after September 28, 1971.
United States v. Richardson, supra, 512 F.2d at 106.
I, therefore, would find that Commonwealth v. Baysore, 349 Pa.Super. 345, 503 A.2d 33 (1986), allocatur denied, September 30, 1986, was correctly decided.

. '“Every statute of limitations, of course, may permit a rogue to escape____'” Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. 112, 123, 90 S.Ct. 858, 864, 25 L.Ed.2d 156 (1970) quoting Pendergast v. United States, 317 U.S. 412, 418, 63 S.Ct. 268, 270, 87 L.Ed. 368 (1943).

. The interpretation of Act 122 and Act 326 by the majority results in the anomaly of the five year statute of limitations provided by 42 Pa.C.S. § 5552(b) being applied retroactively to prosecutions arising under subsections (b)(1) and (b)(2), but prospectively to prosecutions arising under subsection (b)(4).

. Chief Justice Nix, in his concurring opinion in Commonwealth v. Story, supra, concluded that the sentencing procedures of the Act of September 13, 1978, could not be applied to an offense committed in 1974 because the legislature had not expressed an intention to apply the act retroactively.