Court Opinion

ID: 9751723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:55:35.984424+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:57.831624
License: Public Domain

*455ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
Because I have concluded that the instruction at issue in this case was improper, I must respectfully dissent. The trial court’s instruction did not clearly, adequately and accurately present the law. The gravamen of the error in the instruction was that it did not leave the ultimate determination of whether Appellant had actual physical control of the vehicle to the jury as finder of fact. Rather, the trial court’s instruction effectively directed the jury to find as a fact that Appellant was in actual physical control of the vehicle.
Upon inquiry made by the jury, the trial court stated “[i]f they were seated in the driver’s seat, they would be in a position to control.” Effectively, the trial court mandated what conclusion was to be drawn from Appellant’s presence in the driver’s seat, thereby usurping the fact finding function of the jury.
The question of whether Appellant was in actual physical control of the vehicle was the sole issue for the jury to determine. The error committed by the trial court in its response to the jury’s request for additional instructions concerned this critical part of the case and cannot be disposed of as a matter of harmless error. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); Commonwealth v. Story, 476 Pa. 391, 383 A.2d 155 (1978).
I would therefore reverse the judgment of sentence and award Appellant a new trial.