Court Opinion

ID: 9703460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:57:47.085611+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:49.165987
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
dissenting:
Rather than affirming the judgment of sentence, as does the majority, I should remand for further proceedings.
The majority agrees, and in any event it is settled, that the Commonwealth had the burden of proving that it exercised due diligence in trying to find appellant. Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 472 Pa. 553, 372 A.2d 826 (1977); Commonwealth v. Kovacs, 250 Pa.Super. 66, 378 A.2d 455 (1977). The majority states, however, that “due diligence” means “only reasonable efforts.” At 58. I find this unhelpful, for two reasons. If “only reasonable efforts” is offered as a synonym for “due diligence”, it in no way advances our inquiry, for we are given no criteria by which to decide *58whether the efforts in question were “only reasonable”. If “only reasonable efforts” is offered as an alternative to “due diligence”, it represents a dilution, or relaxation, of the standard by which the Commonwealth’s efforts will be measured. This is in fact how I read the majority opinion, especially given the emphasis on only reasonable efforts.
Of course, a court has considerable freedom in how it defines a legal standard,1 but it ought to use words in their everyday sense; and in that sense, “due diligence” connotes more than “only reasonable efforts”. Thus a standard definition of “diligence” is:
persevering application: devoted and painstaking application to accomplish an undertaking: ASSIDUITY (the proverbial _of the bee).
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 633 (1965). A police officer told that he is required to make “only reasonable efforts” to find an accused will not understand that he is required to apply himself in a “devoted and painstaking” manner.
Accepting, then, that “due diligence” and not “reasonable efforts” is the appropriate standard to be applied, the question becomes how that standard should be applied. When a court says that due diligence has, or has not, been exercised, it is stating a conclusion of law. The conclusion is not a “pure” conclusion, by which I mean, a conclusion that may be found in the books, as for example (to pick an example at random) that a particular exculpatory clause is, or is not, valid. See Employers L. A. C. v. Greenville B. Men's A., 423 Pa. 288, 291-92, 224 A.2d 620, 622-23 (1966). Instead, the conclusion is one that must be derived from the court’s appraisal of a factual record. First the court must ask: According to the record, what did the police and prosecutor do in order to bring the accused to trial? One answer to this question may be that the record doesn’t show what they did; another answer may be that what the record shows will *59depend upon which witnesses the court believes. In any event, when the court has decided what the police and prosecutor did, then it must ask: Does this conduct, as a matter of law, represent due diligence?
It is apparent that the degree of difficulty the court will experience in answering this question will depend upon the quality, or completeness, of the record. Sometimes the court will experience no difficulty. See, e. g., Commonwealth v. Kovacs, supra (no due diligence where district attorney’s office by own admission waited eight months before requesting custody of accused). Other times the record will be insufficient to support a conclusion — any conclusion, either that there was due diligence or that there was not — in which event the court will remand the case so that the record may be made more complete. Cf. Commonwealth v. Garnett, 258 Pa.Super. 115, 392 A.2d 711 (1978) (no transcript; case remanded for due diligence hearing); Commonwealth v. Ferebee, 479 Pa.Super. 1, 393 A.2d 804 (1978) (same); Commonwealth v. Gardner, 253 Pa.Super. 233, 384 A.2d 1318 (1978) (remand to determine the voluntariness of the waiver); Commonwealth v. Laudenslager, 259 Pa.Super. 118, 393 A.2d 745 (1978) (SPAETH, J., dissenting) (urging that case should be remanded to the lower court for a hearing to determine whether the Commonwealth had exercised due diligence).
The majority has no difficulty in finding that the police exercised due diligence in locating appellant because the police checked the county prison once in September 1975 to determine whether appellant was incarcerated, and conducted a street investigation. The police, however, did not check the prison again until March 1976; if they had they would have learned that appellant had been incarcerated there since September 22. It seems that it would have been a simple matter for the police either to check the prison sooner or to ask the prison to let them know if appellant turned up there. Because of this, I should like the record to show why the police did not take such actions. More specifically, I should like to know what standard police practice required. *60Are there police training manuals that instruct an officer on what he should do when looking for someone accused of a crime? What sort of procedures are in effect at the prison? Also, how much trouble, in terms of personnel, time, and record keeping, is it to ask a prison to keep on the lookout for someone, and for the prison to do so?
The answers to these questions would be helpful in determining whether the police acted with due diligence. Suppose, for example, that on remand it were shown that the Philadelphia police — whose due diligence is at issue here — regularly leave word with the prison; that their training manuals and courses of instruction regularly prescribe that this be done; and that the prison has no trouble doing it, and often finds persons the police are looking for. I should be surprised if on such a record it could even be said that “only reasonable efforts” had been made, much less that “due diligence” had been exercised. I don’t imply that evidence of standard practice would be controlling. Sometimes practice may be standard but nevertheless careless. If the evidence were that the police never checked the prisons, but that it would be no trouble to do so, the conclusion that they had failed to exercise due diligence might be warranted. Cf. Speyer, Inc. v. Humble Oil and Refining Cc., 403 F.2d 766, 770 n. 8 (3d Cir. 1968) (evidence of custom or practice is relevant to a determination of the standard of care to which the defendants are held but it is not conclusive); George v. Morgan Construction Co., 389 F.Supp. 253, 262 (E.D.Pa.1975) (customary method could be negligent despite the fact that it was in general use in the trade).
We are dealing with a grave crime. I am unwilling, however, to hold appellant by diluting the standard of due diligence, which seems to me the effect of the majority opinion; for that would undermine the right to a speedy trial to which everyone accused of crime, not just appellant, is entitled. I submit that the better course is to maintain the standard, while insisting upon a record full enough to enable us to conclude with confidence that it either has, or has not, been met.
*61I should remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.2

. Cf. Charles Evan Hughes’s statement: “We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.” Speech, May 3, 1907, quoted in R. Aldisert, The Judicial Process 501 (1976).

. Because I should remand for a hearing to determine whether appellant’s Rule 1100 rights were violated, I find it unnecessary to reach appellant’s other claims.