305 A.2d 407
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
May 25, 1973.
Motor vehicle — Suspension of junior operator’s license — The Vehicle Code, Act 1959, April 29, P. L. 58 — Assessment of points.
1. Provisions of The Vehicle Code, Act 1959, April 29, P. L. 58, empower the Secretary of Transportation to suspend a junior operator’s license upon a speeding conviction rather than merely to assess points for the violation. [636-7]
Submitted on briefs, May 10, 1973, to Judges CRUMLISH, JR., WILKINSON, JR. and ROGERS, sitting as a panel of three.
Page 636
Appeal, No. 1253 C.D. 1972, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Jack M. Fiedler, No. 740 July Term, 1972.
Suspension of junior operator’s license by Secretary of Transportation. Licensee appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County. Appeal sustained. MIHALICH, J. Commonwealth appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Reversed. Order of suspension reinstated.
Stuart A. Liner, Assistant Attorney General, with him Anthony J. Maiorana, Assistant Attorney General, Robert W. Cunliffe,
Deputy Attorney General, and Israel Packel, Attorney General, for appellant.
Leonard A. Redlich, with him Redlich, Cassol, Redlich Morocco, for appellee.
OPINION BY JUDGE WILKINSON, May 25, 1973:
Appellee, at the time of the violation for which his operator’s license was suspended, i.e., speeding at a rate of seventy (70)miles per hour in a sixty (60) mile an hour zone, was sixteen (16) years of age. He was operating the vehicle under a junior operator’s license as provided in Section 604.1 of The Vehicle Code, Act of April 29, 1959, P. L. 58, as amended, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 604.1. Following the statutory procedure, the Secretary of Transportation suspended the appellee’s junior operator’s license for six months. On appeal, the lower court sustained the appeal and directed the Secretary to reinstate the operator’s privileges and impose points for the violation. The lower court was in error and we must reverse.
Section 604.1 of The Vehicle Code clearly provides in subsection (a) as follows: “. . . the secretary may
Page 637
after hearing, suspend the operating privileges of such junior operator until he has reached the age of eighteen (18) years, or for any other period of time.” Any possible doubt that this authorizes suspension rather than assignment of points was put to rest by the Superior Court in Commonwealth v. Angelicchio, 213 Pa. Super. 409, 249 A.2d 788 (1968). Misky v. Commonwealth, 17 Chester 40, 46 Pa. D. C.2d 14 (1968), relied upon by the court below, has been expressly overruled by that court in Commonwealth v. Goslin, 18 Chester 13 (1969).
Accordingly, the order of the court below is reversed, and the order of the Secretary of Transportation suspending the appellee’s operating privileges is reinstated.