Court Opinion

ID: 9699347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:20:18.229389+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:48.995968
License: Public Domain

*505PRICE, Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent on two grounds. I do not read the supreme court’s per curiam order of September 21, 1977, as adopting Judge Spaeth’s dissenting opinion in Commonwealth v. McCusker, 245 Pa.Super. 402, 369 A.2d 465 (1976). In support of this conclusion, I would point out that, while Judge Spaeth would have remanded to the lower court with leave for the appellant to file a petition to withdraw his guilty plea, the supreme court remanded for the filing of post-verdict motions nunc pro tunc. These are not identical dispositions, and, I suggest, if the supreme court had intended to adopt Judge Spaeth’s position, it could have easily expressed that intention.
Second, the sole issue presented by this appellant is a challenge to his guilty plea. He did not address the failure to preserve this .issue in post-verdict motions, or claim that his failure to do so was involuntary. There is no assertion that the lower court failed to comply with Pa.R.Crim.P. 1123. Under these circumstances, I consider it improper for this court to reach the Rule 1123 issue sua sponte and to remand to the lower court on that ground. See Commonwealth v. Leaman, 255 Pa.Super. 481, 388 A.2d 330 (1978) (dissenting opinion by Price, J.). Appellant has not raised the issue of the voluntariness of his failure to preserve his claim at the earliest opportunity on appeal. I would therefore hold that issue waived, Commonwealth v. Carter, 463 Pa. 310, 344 A.2d 846 (1975), and affirm the judgment of sentence.