Commonwealth v. Funk

• Decision Date: 13 April 1978
• Citation: 385 A.2d 995,254 Pa.Super. 233
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Richard J. FUNK, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

385 A.2d 995

254 Pa.Super. 233

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Richard J. FUNK, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

April 13, 1978

Submitted Dec. 6, 1976.

Michael J. Perezous, Lancaster, for appellant.

D Richard Eckman, Dist. Atty., Lancaster, for Commonwealth appellee.

Before WATKINS, President Judge, and JACOBS, HOFFMAN, CERCONE PRICE, VAN der VOORT and SPAETH, JJ.

SPAETH Judge:

This is an appeal from judgment of sentence for driving while under the influence of alcohol. The Vehicle Code, Act of Apr. 29, 1959, P.L. 58 § 1037, eff. July 14, 1974, 75 P.S. § 1307 (currently, Act of June 17, 1976, P.L. 162, Act No. 81 as amended, eff. July 1, 1977, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3731).

On October 26, 1974, at about 10:56 p. m., appellant was involved in a two-car collision. He was pinned behind the steering wheel of his car for 45 minutes, during which time he appeared unconscious to an investigating police officer, but received treatment from an ambulance crew. After being freed from his car, appellant was taken to a hospital. There, at about 12:45 a. m. he was questioned by two officers, who also testified that he was passing in and out of consciousness. Appellant told the officers, "Show me the intersection and I'll show you who had the right of way." Both officers smelled alcohol on appellant. They asked appellant to submit to a blood test, telling him that the purpose was to determine the alcoholic content, and appellant replied, "Yes, you have me anyway." While a consent form was being prepared, appellant passed out again and could not be aroused. A doctor took blood for the test (which later showed appellant to have been legally intoxicated), but appellant did not sign the consent form, nor did he have any knowledge of its content. He was given no Miranda -type warnings, nor was he told he had the right to refuse to submit to the blood test. Some days later appellant refused to sign the consent form. Before trial, appellant filed a motion to suppress the results of the blood test. The motion was denied, and that is the basis of this appeal.

The provisions for the taking of a breathalyzer or blood test are set out in The Vehicle Code, supra, § 624.1 (§ 1547 of the current Code, supra ), and read as follows:

(a) Any person who operates a motor vehicle or tractor in this Commonwealth, shall be deemed to have given his consent to a chemical test of his breath, for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his blood: Provided, That the test is administered by qualified personnel and with equipment approved by the secretary at the direction of a police officer having reasonable grounds to believe the person to have been driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Qualified personnel means a physician or a police officer who has received training in the use of such equipment in a training program approved by the secretary. If any person is placed under arrest and charged with the operation of a motor vehicle or tractor while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and is thereafter requested to submit to a chemical test and refuses to do so, the test shall not be given but the secretary may suspend his license or permit to operate a motor vehicle or tractor with or without a hearing. Any person whose license or permit to operate a motor vehicle or tractor is suspended under the provisions of this act shall have the same right of appeal as provided for in cases of suspension for other reasons.

(f) If for any reason a person is physically unable to supply enough breath to complete a chemical test a physician or a technician acting under his direction may withdraw blood for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content therein. Consent is hereby given by such persons. The chemical analysis of the blood taken under these circumstances shall be admissible in evidence.

(h) The refusal to submit to a chemical test may be admitted into evidence as a factor to be considered in determining innocence or guilt.

A substantial gloss has been put on these provisions. In Commonwealth v. Wolpert, 225 Pa.Super. 361, 308 A.2d 120 (1973), we held that the right to refuse a breathalyzer or blood test (with the consequences of possible license suspension and admission of the refusal at trial as a fact to be considered in determining guilt or innocence) must be extended to all persons suspected of drunken driving, not just to those who have formally been arrested, as the statute on its face might appear to imply. In Commonwealth v. Quarles, 229 Pa.Super. 363, 324 A.2d 452 (1974), we held that it was unconstitutional to condition the right to drive a car on consent to a blood or breath test, and that for the choice of taking the test or refusing it and suffering the consequences to become operable, there must be probable cause to believe that the suspect had been driving while intoxicated. When there is probable cause, we held, the blood test may be administered on the spot, but if the suspect must be transported to another place for the test to be administered, a lawful arrest is required.

-1-

First appellant argues that there was no probable cause to believe that he was driving while intoxicated. The odor of alcohol alone, he says, was not enough. While we might agree with appellant if the odor of alcohol were all the evidence the officers had, in fact they had more than that. One officer testified that appellant was "stuporous" at the time the blood was taken, N.T. 46. While a medical doctor testified that the stupor was consistent with appellant's being either intoxicated or suffering from a concussion, N.T. 28, there was the possibility of either. The "strong" odor, N.T. 13, of alcohol was still evident almost two hours after the accident. Furthermore, there had been an accident; while not strongly probative, this fact is corroborative of the other evidence of driving while intoxicated; it is not as if the police simply stopped appellant while he was driving along safely and came to their conclusion based on an odor of alcohol. In these circumstances we conclude that the police had probable cause to request a blood or breath test.

-2-

Next appellant argues that even if the police had probable cause to request a test, there was no evidence that entitled them to a blood test instead of a breathalyzer test, a blood test being more of an intrusion, Commonwealth v. Quarles, supra at 387, 324 A.2d at 465. While it is true that the Commonwealth did not introduce any evidence specifically proving that appellant was "physically unable to supply enough breath to complete a chemical test," The Vehicle Code, supra, we shall not require such proof. The lower court put a gloss of "reasonableness" on the Code, and we agree: the decision to take a blood sample, the less desirable alternative, will not be faulted where there is a reasonable basis for believing that a driver in a precarious medical condition will not be able to summon enough breath to complete a breathalyzer test. Here, appellant had been in a serious automobile accident. He was passing in and out of consciousness; it was possible that he had suffered a concussion; he was stuporous. In these circumstances the police decision to request a blood sample rather than a breathalyzer test was reasonable.

-3-

Finally, appellant argues that the blood test should have been suppressed because he did not voluntarily and intelligently consent to it.

Where the defendant's consent is voluntary and intelligent, an illegal application of the blood test provisions of The Code will have been waived. Commonwealth v. Watkins, 236 Pa.Super. 397, 344 A.2d 678 (1975). Appellant argues that his consent was not voluntary and intelligent, and consequently, that illegal application of The Code was not waived. However, since we have held above that The Code was not illegally applied ^[*] we do not need to consider this argument except in one limited sense. Under The Code, as interpreted in Commonwealth v. Wolpert, supra, appellant was entitled to the opportunity to choose between (1) having a test taken, and (2) refusing to have a test taken and risking loss of license and the admission at trial of the fact of refusal as a fact relevant to guilt or innocence. We have serious doubt that appellant voluntarily and intelligently made that limited choice. He was stuporous when he was conscious (whether from alcohol or from a concussion), N.T. 28, 34; "(h)e did not respond to questions quickly, quite slowly", N.T. 28; he was passing in and out of consciousness, N.T. 8, 48; "The typical picture you see from someone suffering from a concussion who is unable to think clearly?", N.T. 36 (question phrased by appellant's counsel, to which expert witness, a doctor, replied, "That is true."); possibly he was sedated, N.T. 6; and at the time blood was drawn he had become incoherent, and then had passed out, N.T. 48.

We cannot ignore this evidence that appellant's consent to the test his exercise of the limited choice presented by the statute between test and "no test but," was not voluntary and intelligent. It is here that we depart from the course that The Code charts, for there is no indication that the legislature considered this possibility. We have concluded, however, that it is consistent with the aims of the legislature and the structure of the statute to hold that the police officers acted lawfully in taking the blood test, even assuming, as we do, that appellant was not conscious enough to avail himself of his opportunity to refuse the test and accept the consequences.

The primary consideration of the legislature in enacting the implied consent statute was evidentiary:

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