Commonwealth v. Salot
Commonwealth v. Salot
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The defendant appellant was tried in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia upon a bill of indictment containing two counts, one charging larceny and the other receiving stolen goods, etc. He was convicted upon the latter count and duly sentenced and from that sentence this appeal comes.
The record shows no alleged trial errors. The appellant now rests his case solely on the ground that the municipal court had no jurisdiction to try the defendant because the legislature was without power to confer such jurisdiction in a case where the bill of indictment had been found in the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia County. The supporting argument is the familiar one which has been considered, discussed and answered in a number of very recent cases, both in the Supreme Court and this court.
A careful study of the scholarly argument in the printed brief of the learned counsel for the appellant has led
The judgment is affirmed and the record remitted and it is ordered that the defendant appear in the court below at such time as he may be there called and that he be by that court committed until he has complied with the sentence or any part of it which had not been performed at the time the appeal in this case was made a supersedeas.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Criminal law — Municipal court — Jurisdiction—Act of July 12, 1918, P. L. 711, and Act of June 17,1916, P. L. 1017. The 11th section of the Act of July 12, 1913, P. L. 711, as amended by the Act of June 17, 1915, P. L. 1017, conferred upon the municipal court the right to try cases after an indictment had been found, the power to try necessarily implying authority to impose sentence upon a verdict of guilty. The acts of assembly did not confer upon the municipal court jurisdiction to summon a grand inquest and inquire of offenses with which defendants were charged; the provisions of this section clearly establish that it was the legislative intention that when defendants, without preliminary hearing, were bound over for trial in any case, the transcript and recognizance should be returned and indictments presented against them before the grand jury in accordance with existing laws, that is, to the existing courts having jurisdiction of criminal offenses. Such indictment may be tried either in the existing courts, or in the municipal court as the case may be.