Opinion
July 15, 1982.
Motor vehicles — Operator's license — Suspension.
1. Absent a showing of prejudice, the mere passage of time between a conviction and the suspension of a motor vehicle operator's license is not sufficient justification to set aside the suspension. [430-1]
Submitted on briefs June 7, 1982, to Judges ROGERS, BLATT and CRAIG, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 1130 C.D. 1980, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County in the case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Tinnie Roosevelt Jones, No. 16 October Term, 1976.
Motor vehicle operator's license revoked by the Department of Transportation. Licensee appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County. Appeal dismissed. EDENHARTER, J. Licensee appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Oscar N. Gaskins, Gaskins McCaskill, P.C., for appellant.
Harold Cramer, Assistant Counsel, with him, Ward T. Williams, Chief Counsel, and Jay C. Waldman, General Counsel, for appellee.
Tinnie Roosevelt Jones, convicted on March 24, 1976 of driving while intoxicated, appeals here from a Berks County Court of Common Pleas decision which held that the notice of license revocation sent August 19, 1976 by the Bureau of Traffic Safety to Mr. Jones satisfied the requirement in Section 616(a)(1) of The Vehicle Code of 1959 that the bureau "shall forthwith revoke" the license of a person convicted of that offense. However, that requirement has never been construed to fix an arbitrary time limit for administrative action. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Lea, 34 Pa. Commw. 310, 312, 384 A.2d 269, 270-71 (1978). Rather, "it has been held that absent a showing of prejudice, the mere passage of time between defendant's conviction and the suspension of his operating privileges is not sufficient justification to set aside the action of [the bureau]." Id.
The Vehicle Code of 1959, Act of April 29, 1959, P.L. 58, as amended, formerly 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 616(a)(1), repealed by the Act of June 17, 1976, P.L. 162, 75 Pa. C. S. § 101-§ 9701, effective July 1, 1977, which provided, in relevant part:
Upon receiving a certified record, from the clerk of court, of proceedings in which a person pleaded guilty, entered a plea of nolo contendere, or was found guilty by a judge or jury, of any of the crimes enumerated in this section [including operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor], the secretary shall forthwith revoke, for a period of one (1) year from the date of revocation, the operating privileges of any such person. . . .
Unlike Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Hosek, 3 Pa. Commw. 580, 284 A.2d 524 (1971), upon which Mr. Jones relies, the record is devoid of any evidence that he was prejudiced by an act or omission of the bureau. See Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Passerella, 42 Pa. Commw. 352, 401 A.2d 1 (1979). Thus, we are unable to say that the common pleas court, in finding no prejudice, acted unreasonably or abused its discretion. See Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Rutkowski, 46 Pa. Commw. 64, 406 A.2d 248 (1979).
Accordingly, the decision of the common pleas court is affirmed.
ORDER
NOW, July 15, 1982, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County, dated March 26, 1980, dismissing the appeal of Tinnie Roosevelt Jones, is hereby affirmed.