# Commonwealth v. Koczwara

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · November 25, 1959 · 397 Pa. 575

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9697294

## Case

- **Full name:** Commonwealth v. Koczwara, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** November 25, 1959
- **Citations:** 397 Pa. 575; 155 A.2d 825; 1959 Pa. LEXIS 493
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by McBride
- **Judges:** Jones, C.J., Bell, Musmanno, Jones, Cohen, Bok and McBride
- **Cited by:** 132 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9697294

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that certain sections of the Liquor Code did not require a mens rea when the legislature included terms such as “knowingly” and “willfully” in some provisions, but not in others
- holding that imprisonment for vicarious liability crime violated due process under Pennsylvania Constitution

## Opinion text

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice McBride:
I would agree that a man who sells liquor to a minor may be punished even if he did not know that the person to whom he sold was a minor. But in my opinion, the statute does not and cannot validly create an indictable misdemeanor under which a liquor licensee is *596 punished' by a fine or imprisonment, or both, for the act of an employee in selling to a minor, where, as here, the act itself is done without the licensee’s knowledge, consent, or acquiescence. -1 would reverse the judgment and discharge the defendant.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9697294. Public record. Not legal advice.