Opinion
March 6, 1961.
March 22, 1961.
Motor Vehicles — Licenses — Suspension — Conviction of offense in other state — Period of suspension in each state — Consecutive penalties for same offense — The Vehicle Code.
1. Levy Motor Vehicle Operator License Case, 194 Pa. Super. 390, followed.
2. In this case, in which it appeared that the Secretary of Revenue, after hearing, suspended the operator's license for six months because he had been convicted in Connecticut of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and that thereafter the privilege of operating the motor vehicle in Connecticut was suspended by the state for one year (which period was to be subsequent to the Pennsylvania period of suspension); and that, although the Pennsylvania suspension was made by the Secretary prior to the Connecticut suspension, the court below sustained the appeal on the ground that to suspend the operator's Pennsylvania license "at this time", after his privilege to operate a vehicle in Connecticut was suspended, "would impose consecutive penalties against him for the same offense"; it was Held that the order of the court below should be reversed and the order of the secretary reinstated.
Before ERVIN, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, WATKINS, MONTGOMERY, and FLOOD, JJ. (RHODES, P.J., absent).
Appeal, No. 23, Feb. T., 1961, from order of Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, July T., 1960, No. 85, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Michael Garbush. Order reversed.
Appeal by motor vehicle operator from decision of Secretary of Revenue suspending license.
Order entered reversing decision of Secretary of Revenue, opinion by BROMINSKI, J. Commonwealth appealed.
Elmer T. Bolla, Deputy Attorney General, with him Anne X. Alpern, Attorney General, for Commonwealth, appellant.
No argument was made nor brief submitted for appellee.
Argued March 6, 1961.
Michael Garbush, a Pennsylvania resident to whom this Commonwealth issued an operator's license, was convicted in Connecticut of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor on October 1, 1959, and paid a fine of $100.
Notice of the conviction was received by the Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue and after a hearing, he suspended Garbush's operator's license for six months commencing April 13, 1960. See § 618(e) of The Vehicle Code of April 29, 1959, P.L. 58, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 618(e). Garbush appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County and obtained a supersedeas. Thereafter, the privilege of operating a motor vehicle in Connecticut was suspended by that state for one year commencing October 22, 1960. Although the Pennsylvania suspension was made by the Secretary of Revenue prior to the Connecticut suspension, the court below sustained the appeal on the ground that to suspend Garbush's Pennsylvania license "at this time," after his privilege to operate a vehicle in Connecticut was suspended, "would impose consecutive penalties against him for the same offense." This was palpable error.
For the reasons set forth in Levy Motor Vehicle Operator License Case, 194 Pa. Super. 390, 169 A.2d 596 (1961), the court below must be reversed.
Order of the court below is reversed, and the order of the Secretary of Revenue suspending appellee's license is reinstated.