# Commonwealth v. Garrison

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · May 5, 1978 · 478 Pa. 356

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9698351

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Floyd GARRISON. Appeal of Bruce SAGEL, Esquire, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** May 5, 1978
- **Citations:** 478 Pa. 356; 386 A.2d 971; 1978 Pa. LEXIS 633
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Manderino
- **Judges:** Eagen, O'Brien, Roberts, Pomeroy, Nix, Manderino, Packel
- **Cited by:** 75 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/9698351

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that there was no contempt where the defendant’s conduct was not clearly and specifically prohibited by the court’s ruling
- noting that where “the federal statute is identical in all material respects to the Pennsylvania ... statute, this Court looks to federal decisions for guidance in interpreting” the Pennsylvania statute

## Opinion text

MANDERINO, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the opinion of the Court; however, I do not endorse the holding of all cases from other jurisdictions cited therein. In some of those cases, conduct which clearly did not constitute contempt was held to be contemptuous. Secondly, I do not agree that any of appellant’s conduct in this case could have constituted contempt under subsection II of the Act of June 16, 1836, P.L. 784 § 23, 17 P.S. § 2041 (1962). Subsection II is limited to the failure to comply with a formal order, see In re Johnson, 467 Pa. 552, 556 , 359 A.2d 739, 741 (1976).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9698351. Public record. Not legal advice.