Opinion
April 23, 1980.
Motor vehicles — Suspension of operator's license — Timeliness of appeal — Subject-matter jurisdiction.
1. Lack of a timely appeal of a suspension of a motor vehicle operator's license to the lower court goes to the matter of the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania over the appeal from the lower court and thus may be raised for the first time before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania requiring dismissal of the appeal. [6-7]
Submitted on briefs February 7, 1980, to Judges BLATT, MacPHAIL and WILLIAMS, JR., sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 2948 C.D. 1978, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County in case of Richard A. Lauchnor v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety, No. 78-C-1495.
Suspension of motor vehicle operator's license by Secretary of Transportation. Licensee appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County. Appeal denied. WIEAND, J. Licensee appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Appeal dismissed.
John Peter Karoly, Jr., for appellant.
Charles Donahue, with him Harold H. Cramer, Ward T. Williams, Assistant Attorneys General, and Edward G. Biester, Jr., Attorney General, for appellee.
Richard A. Lauchnor (appellant) appeals here from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County which affirmed the Department of Transportation's six-month suspension of his license to drive a motor vehicle pursuant to Section 1547(b)(1)(i) of the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa. C.S. § 1547(b)(1)(i), because of his refusal to submit to a breath test.
We need not reach the merits of the appellant's case because the record reveals that his petition for the hearing in the lower court was not filed within thirty days of the date that notice of the suspension was mailed to him by the Department of Transportation, as required by Section 1550 of the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa. C.S. § 1550. This lack of a timely appeal of the suspension to the lower court goes to the matter of our subject-matter jurisdiction over the present appeal, and, of course, it may be raised for the first time here. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Ehret, 46 Pa. Commw. 131, 405 A.2d 1355 (1979). Accordingly, this appeal must be dismissed.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 23rd day of April, 1980, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, dated September 6, 1977, in the above-captioned matter is hereby set aside and the appeal of the appellant herein, Richard A. Lauchnor, is dismissed.
President Judge BOWMAN did not participate in the decision in this case.