McKinley v. Commonwealth12/18/2003
This appeal follows our remand to the Commonwealth Court for additional review of the validity of an administrative driver's license suspension under the Implied Consent Law, which was predicated on an extraterritorial encounter between Appellant and a Harrisburg International Airport Police corporal.
The relevant procedural history and background are described in our prior opinion. See McKinley v. PennDOT, 564 Pa. 565, 769 A.2d 1153 (2001) ("McKinley II"). Briefly, Appellant, C. Larry McKinley ("McKinley"), was stopped in his vehicle by a corporal of the Harrisburg International Airport ("HIA") Police at a location outside the airport officer's jurisdiction. When asked to submit to chemical alcohol testing, McKinley refused, resulting in an automatic, administrative suspension by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver Licensing (the "Department" or "PennDOT"), of his driver's license pursuant to the Implied Consent Law, 75 Pa.C.S. §1547(a), (b) ("If any person placed under arrest for [driving under the influence ("DUI")] is requested to submit to chemical testing and refuses to do so, . . . the department shall suspend the operating privilege of the person for a period of 12 months."). In McKinley's statutory appeal, the common pleas court overturned the suspension on the ground that the HIA police corporal lacked extraterritorial arrest powers, but the en banc Commonwealth Court reversed, holding that HIA police officers possessed extra-jurisdictional powers of municipal police. See McKinley v. PennDOT, 739 A.2d 1134 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1999) ("McKinley I"). On allowance of appeal by this Court, however, we determined that the lawful exercise of police powers by HIA officers was, by legislative design, confined to airport premises; thus, we remanded for consideration of other issues relevant to the appeal. See McKinley II, 564 Pa. at 579-85, 769 A.2d at 1161-64. In particular, we asked the Commonwealth Court to determine the proper application of specified terms of the Implied Consent Law in light of the extraterritorial aspect of the encounter, and, in the course of this evaluation, to resolve a conflict in its decisional law exemplified by the divergent rationales and holdings of Kuzneski v. Commonwealth, 98 Pa. Cmwlth. 595, 511 A.2d 951 (1986), and Horton v. PennDOT, 694 A.2d 1 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997).
Following remand, a divided Commonwealth Court panel determined that the situs of the encounter between the HIA corporal and McKinley, although beyond the corporal's territorial jurisdiction, did not impact on the legal effect of McKinley's refusal under the Implied Consent Law. See McKinley v. PennDOT, 793 A.2d 996, 1002 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2002) ("McKinley III"). Accordingly, the court reaffirmed its prior disposition overturning the grant of McKinley's statutory appeal.
In so holding, the Commonwealth Court majority endorsed the Kuzneski line of reasoning to the effect that to be a "police officer" under the Vehicle Code's definition, see 75 Pa.C.S. §102 (defining "police officer" as " natural person authorized by law to make arrests for violations of law"), an individual need only be an "officer in fact," or an official with the power to arrest somewhere, to trigger a sustainable, refusal-based suspension. See McKinley III, 793 A.2d at 1001; accord Kuzneski, 98 Pa. Cmwlth. at 596-97, 511 A.2d at 952-53; Commonwealth, Dep't of Transp., Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Evans, 20 Pa. Cmwlth. 403, 405-06, 342 A.2d 443, 445 (1975). In this regard, the majority distinguished cases in which the official initiating the request for consent lacked a power of arrest in the first instance. See McKinley III, 793 A.2d at 1001 (distinguishing Commonwealth v. Roose
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