Opinion
Argued May 7, 1980
September 10, 1980.
Motor vehicles — Revocation of motor vehicle operator's license — Driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor — Timeliness of appeal — Jurisdiction.
1. A court of common pleas has no jurisdiction over an appeal from action revoking a motor vehicle operator's license following a conviction for driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, when such appeal was filed more than thirty days after the notice of the revocation action was mailed to the licensee. [642]
Argued May 7, 1980, before Judges WILKINSON, JR., CRAIG and WILLIAMS, JR., sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 2928 C.D. 1978, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Wesley A. Rogers, Jr., No. SA 889 of 1978.
Motor vehicle operator's license revoked by Secretary of Transportation. Licensee appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. Appeal sustained. NARICK, J. Commonwealth appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Reversed. Revocation order reinstated.
Harold H. Cramer, Assistant Attorney General, with him Robert W. Cunliffe, Deputy Attorney General, and Edward G. Biester, Jr., Attorney General, for appellant.
No appearance for appellee.
This is an appeal by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (Department) from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County that reversed the Department's revocation of the motor vehicle operating privilege of the instant appellee, Wesley A. Rogers, Jr. We reverse the order of the court below.
Pursuant to Section 616 of The Vehicle Code, formerly 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 616, the Department revoked Rogers' license for one year, after receiving a certified record of his conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol. The Department mailed notice of its action to Rogers on June 16, 1978. On August 14, 1978 Rogers filed his appeal with the lower court.
Act of April 29, 1959, P.L. 58, as amended, repealed by Section 7(a) of the Act of June 17, 1976, P.L. 162, as amended. A similar provision is now found in the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa. C. S. § 1532.
As of the date the Department mailed its notice, Section 1550(a) of the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa. C. S. § 1550(a) was in effect; and it provided, in pertinent part, as follows:
Any person . . . whose operating privilege has been . . . suspended or revoked by the department shall have the right to appeal by filing a petition within 30 days from the date notice is mailed for a hearing in the court of common pleas. . . . (Emphasis added.)
By the time Rogers filed his appeal with the court below, the above Section had been amended to conform to the appeal time prescribed by Sections 5571 and 5572 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa. C. S. § 5571, 5572. However the requirement remained the same: the appeal to the lower court must be filed within 30 days of the date the Department mailed the notice.
Rogers did not file his appeal with the lower court until 58 days after the Department had mailed the notice; he was 28 days beyond the statutorily prescribed appeal period. Therefore, the lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain his appeal; and we must reverse the court's decision for that reason. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Slabaugh, 48 Pa. Commw. 536, 410 A.2d 908 (1980).
ORDER
AND NOW, the 10th day of September, 1980, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County at No. SA 889 of 1978 is reversed.