70 A.2d 660 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1949
Argued November 22, 1949. Defendant was convicted before a magistrate of violating the Public Utility Law by operating a motor vehicle as a common carrier without a certificate of public convenience. He was fined $25 and costs. On appeal to the court below the case was tried de novo without a jury. Defendant offered no testimony, his demurrer *65 to the evidence was overruled, and his motion for a directed verdict was denied. He was convicted, and this appeal followed. The sole question for us is whether the Commonwealth showed by sufficient competent evidence that defendant was guilty of the offense charged.
The Commonwealth's evidence is not disputed. Defendant was the owner of a Dodge sedan; he had not been granted a certificate of public convenience by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; on April 19, 1949 at 1:21 a. m. two investigators for the United Cab Association hailed defendant's car, equipped with a dome light bearing the word "Taxi", at Broad and Market Streets in central Philadelphia and were driven to their destination some twenty blocks away. At the destination one investigator asked the price, and testified that the driver replied: "fifty cents or whatever I wanted to give"; whereupon the investigator paid the driver fifty cents. The investigators could not identify defendant as the driver of the car but it is admitted that defendant is the registered owner.
Defendant argues that the conviction cannot be sustained for three reasons: 1. Mere ownership of the vehicle without proof of owner's knowledge of its illegal use or participation in the alleged offense is insufficient. 2. The car was not a "common carrier by motor vehicle" within the meaning of the Act since it was not transporting passengers for "compensation." 3. It was not shown that defendant received any money from anyone.
I. The Public Utility Law of May 28, 1937, P. L. 1053, § 1311, 66 P. S. § 1501, as amended, provides inter alia: "Any person or corporation operating as a motor carrier . . . and any operator or employe of such carrier, and any person . . . operating as a broker, without a certificate of public convenience, . . . authorizing the service performed, as required by this act, shall, upon conviction of a first or second offense in a summary proceeding . . . be sentenced to pay the costs of prosecution *66
and a fine of not less than twenty five dollars nor more than three hundred dollars; . . ." Under this Act liability is imposed upon three classes of persons: the person "operating as a motor carrier" (e. g., an owner of a car or the proprietor of a business as distinguished from the person physically driving the car); the driver or "employe of such carrier"; and the broker. Ownership alone does not create liability, but where an owner permits his car, equipped with a taxi light dome, to be held out to the public for the purpose of transportation and used for that purpose it is a reasonable inference that he has knowledge and control of it, especially in the absence of evidence to the contrary. The offense is purely statutory and the common law rule that one is not liable for the criminal acts of another in which he did not participate does not apply. "`Whether a criminal intent, or a guilty knowledge, is a necessary ingredient of a statutory offense, is a matter of construction,' to be determined `from the language of the statute, and in view of the manifest purpose and design of the same'": Com. v. Jackson,
The decisions of this Court in Smith v. P. S.C.,
Judge GUERIN of the court below aptly stated: "An enterprise is `operated' by the mere furnishing of the merchandise, the equipment, the capital, or the skill required for its conduct. Personal participation by the `operator' in the physical functioning not only is unnecessary, but it is frequently lacking . . ."
Defendant saw fit not to offer any defense or explanation and it is reasonable to conclude in the circumstances *68 that he was aware of the use of his car and was operating it as a motor carrier in violation of the Act.
II. Defendant's second contention that his car was not a common carrier since it was not transporting passengers for compensation is answered by the definition contained in the Act. "`Common Carrier by Motor Vehicle' means any common carrier who or which holds out or undertakes the transportation of passengers or property, or both, or any class of passengers or property, between points within this Commonwealth by motor vehicle for compensation, whether or not the owner or operator of such motor vehicle, or who or which provides or furnishes any motor vehicle, with or without driver, for transportation or for use in transportation of persons or property as aforesaid . . .": Act of May 28, 1937, supra, § 1(6), 66 P. S. § 1102.
Whether a particular individual is a common carrier is a question of fact to be determined from the evidence. Pa. P. U.C. v. Gornish,
The question of whether such service is for compensation was distinctly answered in Pa. P. U. C. v. Israel,
III. The fact that the Commonwealth did not prove defendant personally received money for the service is not important. Money was paid to the driver for the service rendered in a car owned and provided by defendant.
Judgment and sentence affirmed.