COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. MICHAEL A. MOCK
No. 68 MAP 2018
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA MIDDLE DISTRICT
November 20, 2019
SAYLOR, C.J., BAER, TODD, DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, JJ.
ARGUED: May 14, 2019
OPINION
JUSTICE MUNDY DECIDED: November 20, 2019
The Vehicle Code mandates enhanced grading and sentencing penalties for repeat driving under the influence (“DUI”) offenses committed within ten years of a “prior offense.”
The underlying facts of this case follow. Appellant, Michael Mock, committed DUI on June 3, 2006, which resulted in a conviction on March 27, 2007. More than ten years after committing this offense, but roughly nine years following his conviction, Appellant committed another DUI. On July 10, 2016, at approximately 1:00 a.m., Corporal Arthur
Before proceeding to trial, Appellant filed a motion to quash the information, asserting that the Commonwealth improperly characterized the instant DUI as a second offense because his earlier offense did not constitute a prior offense under
§ 3806. Prior offenses
(a) General rule. ̶ Except as set forth in subsection (b), the term “prior offense” as used in this chapter shall mean any conviction for which judgment of sentence has been imposed, adjudication of delinquency, juvenile consent decree, acceptance of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition or other form of preliminary disposition before the sentencing on the present violation for any of the following:
(1) an offense under
section 3802 (relating to driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance);. . . .
(b) Timing. ̶
(1) For purposes of sections 1553(d.2) (relating to occupational limited license), 1556 (relating to ignition interlock limited license), 3803 (relating to grading), 3804 (relating to penalties) and 3805 (relating to ignition interlock), the prior offense must have occurred: (i) within 10 years prior to the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced; or
(ii) on or after the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced[.]
(2) The court shall calculate the number of prior offenses, if any, at the time of sentencing.
(3) If the defendant is sentenced for two or more offenses in the same day, the offenses shall be considered prior within the meaning of this subsection.
Accordingly, Appellant asserted that per Haag, “subsection (b) overrides the application of subsection (a)” and the language used in subsection (b) signals that the ten-year lookback period runs from the commission date of the present offense to the occurrence date of the earlier offense. Motion to Quash, 10/25/16, at 3. He therefore claimed that because his earlier DUI occurred more than ten years before the present offense occurred, it was not a prior offense under
The trial court rejected Appellant’s argument, explaining that the present offense was properly characterized as a second offense because the previous conviction took place less than ten years prior to the commission of the present offense. Trial Court Order, 12/8/2016, at 1. Appellant proceeded to a stipulated bench trial and was convicted
Appellant filed an appeal to the Superior Court. He continued to argue that the Commonwealth improperly characterized the instant DUI as a second offense, subject to enhanced grading and sentencing penalties, because the earlier offense was committed outside of the ten-year lookback period. The Superior Court affirmed in a divided, published opinion. See Commonwealth v. Mock, 186 A.3d 434 (Pa. Super. 2018).
The majority resolved Appellant’s claim by examining the plain language of
The majority explained, however, that subsection (b) places timing limitations, as the heading suggests, on which prior offenses trigger enhanced grading and sentencing penalties to those that “occurred . . . within [ten] years prior to the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced” or, alternatively, “on or after the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced.” Id. The majority therefore agreed with the trial court’s conclusion that Appellant’s DUI was properly graded as a second offense because his earlier conviction took place within ten years of his commission of the present offense. Id. at 437-38. Accordingly, the majority rejected Appellant’s
Senior Judge Eugene B. Strassburger authored a dissenting opinion. He agreed with the majority’s conclusion that
Senior Judge Strassburger next explained that although a court must apply subsection (a) to determine whether an individual has “any conviction for which judgment of sentence has been imposed,” it must then determine whether the offense meets the criteria set forth in subsection (b). He reasoned that subsection (b)(1), which states that the prior offense “must have occurred . . . within [ten] years prior to the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced,” limits offenses that qualify as a prior offense to those that “the individual committed . . . sometime within the [ten] years before the individual committed the subsequent offense.” Id. (emphasis supplied).
Senior Judge Strassburger further relied on the legislative history of
Appellant filed a petition for allowance of appeal. We granted allocatur to address the following issue:
Did the Superior Court erroneously interpret
75 Pa.C.S. § 3806 as providing that an offender who commits a prior driving under the influence (“DUI”) offense more than ten years before his commission of a present DUI offense, but is convicted of the prior DUI offense within ten years of his commission of his present DUI offenses, has a “prior offense” for purposes of the grading of, and/or sentencing on, the present DUI offense?
Commonwealth v. Mock, 198 A.3d 1049 (Pa. 2018) (per curiam).
Both parties contend that the plain language of the statute dictates the outcome in this matter. Their readings, however, differ substantially. Appellant continues to maintain that the ten-year lookback period referenced in
Appellant asserts that based on Haag, the general rule in subsection (a), which defines a prior offense as any conviction, yields to the entirely separate definition of prior offense in subsection (b), which focuses on the occurrence date of the earlier offense. Id. at 15-17. Appellant reasons that although the legislature twice amended
Finally, Appellant posits that this interpretation is the easiest to apply and the least susceptible to manipulation by the Commonwealth, in that the Commonwealth may not prolong the ten-year lookback period by delaying convictions. Id. at 18. Accordingly,
The Commonwealth counters that Appellant’s reliance on Haag is misplaced. Commonwealth’s Brief at 8. In Haag, this Court addressed an earlier version of
Finally, the Commonwealth disagrees with Appellant’s contention that a lookback period that runs from the occurrence date of the present offense to the conviction date of the earlier offense is subject to manipulation. Id. at 13. To the contrary, it asserts that Appellant’s preferred interpretation would allow offenders to control the lookback period by delaying sentencing. Id. at 14. However, as currently written, the statute removes any manipulation of timing. Id. at 13-14. Thus, the Commonwealth urges this Court to affirm the Superior Court’s order.
The Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association (“PDAA”) and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver Licensing (“PennDOT”) submitted amicus briefs in support of the Commonwealth. Both agree with the Commonwealth’s plain meaning interpretation, but advance an additional argument focusing on the fact that
The Pennsylvania Association for Drunk Driving Defense Attorneys (“PADDDA”) also submitted an amicus brief in support of Appellant. Similar to Appellant, it contends that the plain language controls. PADDDA’s Amicus Brief at 5-6. However, in the event this Court finds the statutory language ambiguous, it argues that the statute must be construed in favor of the accused in accordance with the rule of lenity. Id. at 7-8.
Issues involving statutory interpretation present questions of law for which our standard of review is de novo and our scope of review is plenary. Commonwealth v. Giulian, 141 A.3d 1262, 1266 (Pa. 2016). When interpreting statutes, we are guided by the Statutory Construction Act,
Preliminarily, Appellant and the Commonwealth agree that
We agree with the Superior Court’s determination that the ten-year lookback period in
Accordingly, although Haag’s earlier offense qualified as a prior offense under subsection (a) because it resulted in a conviction prior to sentencing on the second offense, it did not qualify as a prior offense under subsection (b) because the conviction did not take place within ten years before the second violation occurred. Id. at 906. In other words, although a conviction before sentencing of the present offense constituted a prior offense in subsection (a), subsection (b) required that an offender be convicted of the earlier offense at the time the subsequent offense was committed in order to trigger increased grading and sentencing penalties. Due to the exclusionary phrase in subsection (a) and the legislature’s inclusion of separate definitions of prior offense in subsections (a) and (b), we found the legislature’s “deliberate use of a common exception phrase” meant that subsection (b) overrode the application of subsection (a). Id. at 907.
Moreover, Appellant’s interpretation of the term “prior offense” in subsection (b) would produce an absurd result. Were we to interpret “prior offense” in subsection (b)(1) to mean the occurrence date of the earlier offense, that same definition must apply not only to subsection (b)(1)(i), the ten-year lookback period, but also to subsection (b)(1)(ii). Subsection (b)(1)(ii) provides: “[T]he prior offense must have occurred . . . on or after the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced.” Appellant’s construction of Subsection (b)(1)(ii) would create an untenable result considering that a “prior offense” cannot occur after a subsequent offense. However, if we apply the definition of prior offense in subsection (a), then subsection (b)(1)(ii) remains sound, providing as follows: “[T]he prior offense [i.e., the conviction of the earlier offense] must have occurred on or after the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced.” This
Appellant’s convoluted reading of the statute, focusing on the term “occurrence” in subsection (b), is merely a means to a preferred end. We reject his contention that use of the word “occurrence” in subsection (b) alters the essential definition of prior offense set forth in subsection (a). Indeed, when analyzing the language of a statute “we should not interpret statutory words in isolation, but must read them with reference to the context in which they appear.” Giulian, 141 A.3d at 1267 (citing Roethlein v. Portnoff Law Assocs., Ltd., 81 A.3d 816, 822 (Pa. 2013) (citations omitted)).
Although both parties reference previous versions of
(a) General Rule. ̶ Except as set forth in subsection (b) the term “prior offense” as used in this chapter shall mean a conviction, adjudication of delinquency, juvenile consent decree, acceptance of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition or other form of preliminary disposition before the sentencing on the present violation for any of the following:
(1) an offense under
section 3802 (relating to driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance);. . . .
(b) Repeat offenses within ten years. ̶ The calculation of prior offenses for purposes of sections 1553(d.2) (relating to occupational limited license), 3803 (relating to grading) and 3804 (relating to penalties) shall include any conviction, adjudication of delinquency, juvenile consent decree, acceptance of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition or other form of
preliminary disposition within ten years before the present violation occurred for any of the following: (1) an offense under
section 3802 . . .
In an apparent attempt to account for DUI offenses committed on the same date and sentenced simultaneously, the legislature amended the statute. It left subsection (a) unchanged and revised subsection (b) as follows:
(b) Repeated offenses within ten years. ̶ The calculation of prior offenses for purposes of sections 1553(d.2) (relating to occupational limited license), 3803 (relating to grading) and 3804 (relating to penalties) shall include any conviction whether or not judgment of sentence has been imposed for the violation, adjudication of delinquency, juvenile consent decree, acceptance of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition or other form of preliminary disposition within the ten years before the sentencing on the present violation for any of the following:
(1) an offense under
section 3802 . . .
In 2016, the legislature amended
(a) General Rule. ̶ Except as set forth in subsection (b), the term “prior offense” as used in this subchapter shall mean any conviction for which judgment of sentence has been imposed, adjudication of delinquency, juvenile consent decree, acceptance of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition or other form of preliminary disposition before the sentencing on the present violation for any of the following:
(1) an offense under
section 3802 (relating to driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance);. . . .
(b) Timing. ̶
(1) For purposes of sections 1553(d.2) (relating to occupational limited license), 1556 (relating to ignition interlock limited license), 3803 (relating to grading), 3804 (relating to penalties) and 3805 (relating to ignition interlock), the prior offense must have occurred:
(i) within [ten] years prior to the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced[.]
(ii) on or after the date of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced.
(2) The court shall calculate the number of prior offenses, if any, at the time of sentencing.
(3) If the defendant is sentenced for two or more offenses in the same day, the offenses shall be considered prior offenses within the meaning of this subsection.
Finally, we do not find persuasive Appellant’s unsupported assertion that this interpretation of the ten-year lookback period is vulnerable to manipulation by the Commonwealth. Even if this were the case, the plain language of a statute “cannot be ignored in pursuit of the statute’s alleged contrary spirit or purpose.” Koken v. Reliance Ins. Co., 893 A.2d 70, 82 (Pa. 2006).
In sum, the plain language of
Chief Justice Saylor and Justices Baer, Todd and Dougherty join the opinion.
Justices Donohue and Wecht file dissenting opinions.
