Commonwealth v. Lang

• Decision Date: 27 February 1981
• Citation: 426 A.2d 691,285 Pa.Super. 34
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Calvin Mathias LANG, Jr. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Calvin Mathias LANG, Jr., Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

426 A.2d 691

285 Pa.Super. 34

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Calvin Mathias LANG, Jr.

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Calvin Mathias LANG, Jr., Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

February 27, 1981

Argued March 3, 1980.

Robert G. Teeter, Asst. Dist. Atty Gettysburg, for Commonwealth, appellant in No. 56 and appellee in No. 70.

Spero T. Lappas, Harrisburg, for appellant in No. 70 and for appellee in No. 56.

Before CERCONE, President Judge, and WATKINS and MONTGOMERY, JJ.

CERCONE President Judge:

The instant appeals come to us from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Adams County granting defendant Lang's motion to quash an information charging him with homicide by vehicle for the death of Officer James Redding of the New Oxford Borough Police Department, whose unhappy demise was allegedly occasioned by his pursuit of the defendant in an attempt to arrest him for failure to heed a stop sign, and for speeding.

The Commonwealth's Homicide by Vehicle Statute reads:

"Any person who unintentionally causes the death of another person while engaged in the violation of any law of this Commonwealth or municipal ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle or to the regulation of traffic is guilty of homicide by vehicle, a misdemeanor of the first degree, when the violation is the cause of death." Act of 1976, June 17, P.L. 162, No. 81 § 1, eff. July 1, 1977. 75 Pa.C.S. § 3732.

The instant information reads:

"The District Attorney of Adams County, by this information charges that, on or about October 22, 1978, in said County of Adams, Calvin Mathais Lang, Jr. did, in Oxford Township, unlawfully and unintentionally cause the death of another person while engaged in the violation of any law of this Commonwealth or municipal ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle or to the regulation of traffic, to wit: he did while operating a Harley Davidson Motor Cycle, Bearing Pennsylvania Registration # 8V125 violate Sections 3323, 3733 and 3361 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, where he did fail to drive at a safe speed, he did fail to stop at a stop sign and did flee and attempt to elude a police officer, said officer while in pursuit of defendant died as a result of an accident while attempting to stop the above defendant after he committed the violations said officer James A. Redding, of the New Oxford Borough Police Department.

All of which is against the Act of Assembly and the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Lang moved to quash the information, which motion was granted by the order of March 12, 1979. These appeals followed.

Among his omnibus pretrial motions, Lang included three separate motions to quash the information. ^[1] Two of the motions to quash raised constitutional questions, while the third contended that the information failed to allege sufficient causation to sustain criminal liability. On February 16 1979, the court held oral arguments on Lang's omnibus motions, and by an order of the same date required the submission of briefs on the causation issue. The briefs were timely submitted, and the court ordered the information quashed on March 12, 1979. The order was accompanied by a memorandum opinion wherein the court considered at length the causation issue. The lower court did not consider the constitutional questions in detail, being of the opinion that they had been adequately put to rest by its previous finding of constitutionality in Commonwealth v. Beams, 10 D. & C.3d 616 (1978). ^[2] The Commonwealth has appealed the court's finding that the information does not set forth sufficient causation to hold Lang criminally liable. Lang cross-appealed the court's ruling on the statute's constitutionality.

Although the information states no more than that Officer Redding "died as a result of an accident while attempting to stop" the defendant for his Vehicle Code violations, it appears that the lower court considered additional facts in reaching its decision. ^[3] The court considered the following "facts". Officer Redding sighted the defendant speeding along New Oxford's Pleasant Street, activated both siren and flashing lights, and gave chase. Lang attempted to elude apprehension and a "high speed vehicle chase" followed, during the course of which Lang failed to stop at a stop sign. The chase proceeded through New Oxford, coming eventually to Kohler Road. Lang negotiated a "dangerous curve" in that road and proceeded on. Officer Redding was not so fortunate. He lost control of his vehicle on the same curve, crossed the median line, and struck a tree on the other side of the road. He died the same day from the injuries he sustained in the accident.

The lower court based its decision that there was no legal causation in the instant case on its reading of Section 303 of the Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S. § 303, and two cases Lang strongly argued in support of his position, Commonwealth v. Root, 403 Pa. 571, 170 A.2d 310 (1961), and Commonwealth v. Redline, 391 Pa. 486, 137 A.2d 472 (1958). Section 303, one of the preliminary provisions of the Crimes Code, reads in pertinent part:

(a) GENERAL RULE. Conduct is the cause of a result when:

(1) it is an antecedent but for which the result in question would not have occurred; and

(2) the relationship between the conduct and result satisfies any additional causal requirements imposed by this title or by the law defining the offense.

(c) DIVERGENCE BETWEEN PROBABLE AND ACTUAL RESULT. When recklessly or negligently causing a particular result is an element of an offense, the element is not established if the actual result is not within the risk of which the actor is aware or, in the case of negligence, of which he should be aware unless:

(1) the actual result differs from the probable result only in the respect that a different person or different property is injured or affected or that the probable injury or harm would have been more serious or more extensive than that cause; or

(2) the actual result involves the same kind of injury or harm as the probable result and is not too remote or accidental in its occurrence to have a bearing on the liability of the actor or on the gravity of his offense.

(d) ABSOLUTE LIABILITY. When causing a particular result is a material element of an offense for which absolute liability is imposed by law, the element is not established unless the actual result is a probable consequence of the conduct of the actor.

18 Pa.C.S. § 303(a), (c) & (d).

In considering Section 303, the lower court stated the following:

"It might seem at first glance that his case falls securely within the parameters of the section. It can be argued that the police officer would not have chased the defendant had the defendant not fled. It can also be argued that it is foreseeable that someone can be killed as a result of a high speed chase. Thus, it would appear on first consideration, that defendant's action was the legal cause of the death and that defendant can be held criminally responsible."

The lower court correctly concluded that the causation test of Section 303 can be met in the instant case. However, the court then went on to consider the effect of Root and Redline. The lower court found that those cases clearly lead to the conclusion that the instant information does not allege sufficient causation and must be quashed. It is at this fork that we take a different road from that taken by the lower court, for we hold that it erred in relying on Root and Redline to decide the case. For the reasons set out below we reverse and remand the case for further proceedings below.

Chief Justice Jones' opinion in Root set out the facts of that case:

The testimony, which is uncontradicted in material part, discloses that, on the night of the fatal accident, the defendant accepted the deceased's challenge to engage in an automobile race; that the racing took place on a rural 3-lane highway; that the night was clear and dry, and traffic light; that the speed limit on the highway was 50 miles per hour; that, immediately prior to the accident, the two automobiles were being operated at varying speeds of from 70 to 90 miles per hour; that the accident occurred in a no-passing zone on the approach to a bridge where the highway narrowed to two directionally-opposite lanes; that, at the time of the accident, the defendant was in the lead and was proceeding in his right-hand lane of travel; that the the deceased, in an attempt to pass the defendant's automobile, when a truck was closely approaching from the opposite direction, swerved his car to the left, crossed the highway's white dividing line and drove his automobile on the wrong side of the highway head-on into the oncoming truck with resultant fatal effect to himself. Root, supra, at 573, 170 A.2d at 310-311.

In deciding Root, the Supreme Court considered our opinion in Commonwealth v. Levin, 184 Pa.Super. 436, 135 A.2d 764 (1957). Levin, like Root, involved a fatal automobile race. However, in Levin the defendant swerved dangerously to one side cutting off the path of his competitor, causing the competitor to lose control of his automobile and to smash into a tree, thereby killing a passenger in the competitor's vehicle. In Root, although both the defendant and the deceased were involved in an illegal race, the defendant did no more than participate in the race. In effect, defendant's actions there could not have been the direct cause of the death, because the decedent's voluntary participation in the race superseded, in the chain of causation, the defendant's agreement to participate in the illegal race.

Redline involved a felony-murder case where "(t)he defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree ... for the death of his...