Court Opinion

ID: 9652537
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:25:35.277241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:52.250598
License: Public Domain

concurring.
I concur in the result reached in this case but write separately to express my view that today’s result effectively overrules Commonwealth v. Bigelow, 484 Pa. 476, 399 A.2d 392 (1979).
As I understand the Majority, because Section 6106(a) of the Crimes Code is drafted as one sentence in which is included the following phrase set off by commas, “except in his place of abode or fixed place of business” that phrase is to be read as an element of the crime which must be proven by the Commonwealth.
In Bigelow, however, the Court relieved the Commonwealth of the burden of proving whether a person caught with a gun on a city street or building had a license, because that section was contained in a proviso, separated from the main section by a colon, but the two exceptions were all part of the one sentence defining the offense. (18 Pa.C.S. § 6108).
I do not find the Majority’s attempt to distinguish Bigelow from today’s holding very persuasive. Apparently, the Majority is now indicating that the words of exception of Section 6108 are a proviso and are not interpreted as elements of a crime because of the colon separating them from the rest of the definitional sentence. This, however, was not the rationale given originally for the Court’s interpretation. The Court originally noted in Bigelow that the word of exception “unless” conferred proviso status on the *134phrase and did not consider the effect of setting the phrase off from the rest of the definitional section with a colon.
Today the words of exception of Section 6106(a) are not given proviso status because they are separated by the rest of the definitional section by commas. I simply do not see that a definitional sentence should be read differently depending on whether phrases within the sentence are separated by commas or a colon. Punctuation should not be used to control the intention of the General Assembly and is specifically frowned upon by the Rules of Statutory Construction (1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1923(b)).
In light of the Court’s interpretation of Section 6106(a), I believe that Bigelow is inconsistent and that it should be reversed so that our case law is uniform.