Opinion
Argued November 10, 1971
December 10, 1971.
Motor vehicles — Operator's license suspension — Suspension appeal — Termination of hearing — Right to present evidence — Findings of fact — Remand.
1. It is improper for a trial judge, hearing a motor vehicle operator's license suspension appeal, to terminate the hearing and restore the license without giving the Commonwealth adequate opportunity to prove its case. [531]
2. A court of common pleas must make findings of facts in appeals from action of the Secretary of Transportation in suspending a motor vehicle operator's license. [531-2]
Argued November 10, 1971, before Judges WILKINSON, JR., MENCER and ROGERS, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 429 C.D. 1971, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation, v. Samuel L. Williams, No. SA-248 of 1971.
Suspension of motor vehicle operator's license appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. Appeal sustained. MARTIN, J. Commonwealth appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Remanded.
David A. Johnston, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, with him Anthony J. Maiorana, Assistant Attorney General, Robert W. Cunliffe, Deputy Attorney General, and J. Shane Creamer, Attorney General, for appellant.
No appearance for appellee.
This is an appeal from an Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, dated May 11, 1971, which sustained the appeal of Samuel L. Williams from a suspension of six months imposed by the Secretary of Transportation.
The problem that confronts this Court is the failure of the lower court to conduct a proper hearing as a result of which it is impossible to decide the issue before us on appeal. More precisely, as a result of an improperly terminated hearing, the Commonwealth was not allowed to present testimony or place in evidence the necessary information to show the basis for the suspension imposed by the Secretary of Transportation.
The trial judge sustained a "demurrer" which he suggested appellant's counsel make after his own off-the-record inspection of the Certificate of Criminal Conviction from the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County. It is this certificate which is crucial in this appeal, but was never made part of the record because of the improper action of the lower court.
Inasmuch as this case must be remanded for a proper hearing, it is also noted that the lower court failed to make the requisite findings of fact which this Court has prescribed for appeals of this nature. In Re: Appeal of John Robert Horvath, 1 Pa. Commw. 353, 274 A.2d 776 (1971); Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Robert Frank Milspaw, 1 Pa. Commw. 376, 274 A.2d 777 (1971); Commonwealth v. Silverman, 2 Pa. Commw. 538, 279 A.2d 83 (1971).
Therefore, in keeping with this opinion, we issue the following
ORDER
NOW, December 10, 1971, this case is remanded to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County for disposition not inconsistent with the above opinion.