Opinion
March 8, 1971.
June 22, 1971.
Motor Vehicles — Operators — Licenses — Suspension — Suspension of regular license for offense occurring while operator possessed a junior license.
1. The Secretary of Revenue can suspend a regular operator's license, obtained after age eighteen, for a conviction occurring while the person possessed a junior license.
2. In this case, it was Held that a ten months delay between the offense and the effective date of the suspension was not unreasonable as a matter of law.
Before WRIGHT, P.J., WATKINS, MONTGOMERY, JACOBS, HOFFMAN, SPAULDING, and CERCONE JJ.
Appeal, No. 9, March T., 1971, from order of Court of Common Pleas of York County, Aug. T., 1969, No. 157, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Revenue, Bureau of Highway Safety v. Philip C. Grosklos. Order of court below reversed and order of Secretary of Revenue reinstated.
Appeal by licensee from decision of Secretary of Revenue suspending motor vehicle operating privileges. Before SHADLE, J.
Order entered sustaining appeal and reversing suspension. Commonwealth appealed.
Elmer T. Bolla, Deputy Attorney General, with him Anthony J. Maiorana, Assistant Attorney General, and J. Shane Creamer, Attorney General, for Commonwealth, appellee.
No oral argument was made nor brief submitted for appellee.
Argued March 8, 1971.
This case involves an appeal by the Commonwealth from an order of the court below reversing an order of suspension of appellee's license by the Secretary of Revenue.
Appellee was convicted of speeding on July 28, 1968. This speeding offense occurred on July 22, 1968. At the time of the conviction appellee was under the age of 18 and possessed a junior operator's license.
A hearing concerning this conviction was held by the Department of Revenue, Bureau of Traffic Safety, on March 20, 1969, at which time the appellee was still under the age of 18. Following the hearing appellees' license was suspended for a period of three months, effective June 2, 1969. By this time appellant had attained the age of 18 and had been issued a regular operator's license.
This case presents two issues: (1) can the Secretary of Revenue suspend a regular operator's license, obtained after age 18, for a conviction occurring while that person possessed a junior license? and (2) was the 10-month delay between the offense and the effective date of suspension unreasonable as a matter of law?
These same issues were presented and decided in our opinion filed this day in Criswell Motor Vehicle License Case, 219 Pa. Super. 170, 280 A.2d 553 (1971), and are controlled thereby.
The order of the court below is reversed and the order of suspension imposed by the Secretary of Revenue is reinstated.