69 Pa. Super. 520 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1918
Opinion by
Tfie appellant was adjudged guilty, by a police magistrate of tfie Oi'ty of Pittsburgh, of violation of a city ordinance, wfiicfi tfie city by an act of assembly was expressly authorized to ordain, was fined five dollars, wfiicfi fine fie paid, under protest. After having paid fiis fine fie presented fiis petition to tfie County Court of Allegheny County praying for an appeal and a hearing de novo, wfiicfi appeal tfie court below allowed. Tfie county court adjudged tfie defendant not guilty and discharged him. Tfie defendant, this appellant, did not seem to be satisfied witfi tfie grounds upon wfiicfi tfie county court had adjudged him not guilty and, on May 1, 1916, presented fiis petition to tfie court setting forth that, on March 10, 1916, fiis case had been heard before Judge Kennedy, of tfie county court, who' after hearing tfie evidence, dismissed him, stating that fie was not a suspicious person. That Judge Kennedy had subsequently ashed counsel for briefs and a reargument and that tfie case fiad been reargued before Judge Kennedy and Judge McKenna and “that on April 13,1916, Judge Kennedy filed an opinion wfierein fie refused to reverse fiis oral decision at tfie fiearing,” but in wfiicfi fie field as matter of law tfiat tfie question as to wfietfier tfie defendant was a suspicious person was to be determined by tfie circumstances as they appeared at tfie time of tfie arrest by tfie officer, and not upon tfie facts as they appeared at tfie time of tfie fiearing. Tfie petition further
We have thus fully stated the facts disclosed by the record in this case in order to make clearly appear a practice which is not to be encouraged. We have after mature reflection been unable to find any ground upon which there was any justification for this appeal. The Commonwealth has constituted its appellate courts for the purpose of rectifying the wrongs of “parties aggrieved ” by the decisions of the courts of original jurisdiction. It is no part of the functions of the courts to decide academic questions. There can be no doubt that we are in this case asked to decide an academic question and the appeal must for that reason be quashed.
The jurisdiction of the Superior Court is purely statutory. The statutes allow appeals to this court from all proceedings in the Court of Quarter Sessions of the peace, from decisions of the courts of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery in all cases except felonious homicide, from decisions in certain proceedings in the Courts of Common Pleas and Orphans’ Courts, and from orders of the Public Service Commission. The statutes which confer the jurisdiction, in criminal matters, limit it to appeals from particular courts and do not extend it to all criminal cases without regard to the courts from which the appeals come. There is nothing in the legislation relating to the County Court of Allegheny County, which vests the Superior Court with jurisdiction to hear appeals coming directly from the court first named in cases of the character here presented. The party who invokes the jurisdiction of the Superior Court must show statutory authority for so doing: Commonwealth v. Atlantic Refining Co., 67 Pa. Superior Ct. 551. The Supreme Court is vested with the powers of the King’s Bench in criminal cases and has general supervisory power over such proceedings, which it exercises with ex
The appeal is quashed.