applying Bass, holding claimant permitted to file a late appeal where his attorney’s law clerk’s car broke down en route to the post office, thereby preventing a timely (Footnote continued on next page…) 6 ROBERT SIMPSON, Judge (continued…) filing
How later courts described this case
- applying Bass, holding claimant permitted to file a late appeal where his attorney’s law clerk’s car broke down en route to the post office, thereby preventing a timely (Footnote continued on next page…) 6 ROBERT SIMPSON, Judge (continued…) filing
- holding that petitioner was entitled to nunc pro tunc relief where counsel filed an appeal one day late
- [the] fact that [the] law clerk’s car broke down while he was on route to the post office, precluding him from getting to the post office before closing time, was a non-negligent happenstance for granting appeal nunc pro tunc
- granting a nunc pro tunc appeal where counsel filed the appeal three days late because his law clerk’s vehicle had mechanical problems while en route to the post office
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by
Judge MacPhaxl :
While I concur in the result reached by the majority on the merits, I must respectfully dissent to that part of the majority opinion which denies the motion to quash.
I think that the facts here are clearly distinguishable from those in Bass v. Commonwealth, 485 Pa. 256 , 401 A.2d 1133 (1979) and that the decision in Bass should not be extended beyond the circumstances of that case. I note that the concurring opinion by Justice Nix in Bass carefully points out that the decision reached in that case is not a revision of the accepted standards normally applied to an appeal untimely filed. The application of those standards to the instant case, in my opinion, would compel us to grant the motion to quash. Counsel who waits until the last day to file an appeal should be held accountable if his law clerk’s automobile breaks down on the way to the post office.