Court Opinion

ID: 9753120
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:58:14.418669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:30.133375
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Montgomery, J.:
I cannot concede that the case of Commonwealth v. Frank, 159 Pa. Superior Ct. 271, 48 A. 2d 10, strongly relied on by the majority, precludes a review of the *422rulings of the lower court preventing the admission of evidence which might have made out a prima facie case for the Commonwealth. In that case certain witnesses necessary to the CommonAvealth’s case Avere supported in their stand, on constitutional rights, to refuse to testify. President Judge- Baldrige of this Court, revieAved the actions of the lower court at great length and concluded that (page 273), “We are of the opinion that the court’s conclusion is correct.” Consequently, it affirmed the judgment, since the record was insufficient without that evidence.
There, the issue was whether the testimony of witnesses who were associated with the defendant in the operation of a lottery and who claimed their constitutional privilege against self-incrimination Avas properly excluded by the trial court. It is obvious that this Court had to consider the excluded evidence to determine whether the trial court was correct in its refusal to order the witnesses to testify on the grounds of constitutional privilege, but there was no logical reason to declare as a general rule that such review of a lower court’s exclusion of evidence upon a demurrer in a criminal proceeding to be improper.
In the present case, the CommonAvealth is asking this Court to do precisely the same thing, that is, review the actions of the lower court. It seeks to establish that the rulings of the lower court, in excluding evidence, were erroneous, and that if such evidence had been admitted, it, together with the admitted evidence, would have been sufficient to establish a prima facie case.
I concede that the circumstances Avhere the Commonwealth may appeal in criminal cases are limited, but I find no authority to support the proposition that a trial judge may, by his errors, limit the record which may be subject to review on an appeal by the Comm on - Avealth from the actions of the lower court in sustain*423ing a demurrer to the evidence offered by the prosecution.
Commonwealth v. Frank, supra, finds no support in the very authorities upon which it relies for the interpretation derived from it by the majority. Commonwealth v. Obenreder, 144 Pa. Superior Ct. 253, 19 A. 2d 497, was a case of an acquittal; Commonwealth v. Shiroff, 131 Pa. Superior Ct. 565, 200 A. 204, involved the sufficiency of the admitted testimony to support necessary inferences. In Com. of Pa. v. Kolsky, 100 Pa. Superior Ct. 596, the Commonwealth’s evidence was wholly circumstantial and the inferences to be drawn were not inconsistent with the defendant’s innocence. In Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ernesto, 93 Pa. Superior Ct. 339, the question was whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conclusion that the illegal acts of the defendants were the cause of - the crime for which the defendants had been indicted. In Commonwealth v. Kerr, 150 Pa. Superior Ct. 598, 29 A. 2d 340, the trial court, after sustaining defendant’s demurrer, erred in directing the jury to find a verdict of not guilty. In Commonwealth v. Williams, 71 Pa. Superior Ct. 311, the question was whether the court could draw a conclusion after a demurrer which a jury might have inferred from the evidence. In Commonwealth v. Heller, 147 Pa. Superior Ct. 68, 24 A. 2d 460, the trial court was of the erroneous opinion that after it had overruled a demurrer to the Commonwealth’s evidence and the defendants had taken the stand and offered other evidence, the case resulting in a jury verdict of guilty, the trial court could reconsider its action on the demurrer, sustaining it and discharging the defendants. In Huffman v. Simmons, 131 Pa. Superior Ct. 370, 200 A. 274, it was held that in entering a judgment n.o.v. the judgment must be entered on tlie evidence in the record and the court may not consider evidence that was excluded. However, up*424on appeal, this Court did consider the excluded evidence and the propriety of the court in its consideration of it. In Henry Shenk Company v. Erie, 352 Pa. 481, 43 A. 2d 99, the defendant’s motion for judgment n.o.v. was properly refused where the motion was predicated upon the record of former viewers’ proceedings which were not admitted in evidence until after the close of trial and the return of the jury’s verdict.
None of these cases are concerned with the determination of the validity of a demurrer in a criminal case where evidence has been excluded as inadmissible. The case of Commonwealth v. Thomas, 166 Pa. Superior Ct. 214, 70 A. 2d 458, is directly in point, and states that in such a case excluded evidence, even if error, cannot be considered on review. However, the only case cited in the opinion for this declaration is Commonwealth v. Frank, supra, which I do not believe to be in point or even inferentially a basis for this conclusion.
Preventing the Commonwealth from appealing the exclusion of evidence resulting in the sustaining of a demurrer and the discharge of the defendants is not justified either by the established principles of law permitting the Commonwealth to appeal all questions of law where there has been no verdict of acquittal or policy considerations which insulate the defendant after an acquittal by the trier of fact.
I therefore respectfully dissent.
Flood, J., joins in this dissent.