# Schmidt v. Commonwealth

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · July 10, 1981 · 495 Pa. 238

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9749121

## Case

- **Full name:** William A. SCHMIDT, T/A A. J. Schmidt & Company, Petitioner, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Respondent
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** July 10, 1981
- **Citations:** 495 Pa. 238; 433 A.2d 456; 1981 Pa. LEXIS 937
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Plurality opinion by Roberts
- **Judges:** Roberts, Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, Kauffman, O'Brien, Wilkinson
- **Cited by:** 27 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/9749121

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that the applicable statutory mailing requirement is not “a vehicle whereby an appeal could be dismissed . . . when the denial of such an 20 appeal would be manifestly unjust to the taxpayer who was never informed of the mailing date”
- explaining that "[k]nowledge of a decision's mailing date is essential to the taxpayer" and indicating that the administrative agency had a duty to advise the taxpayer of the date of mailing (emphasis in original)
- observing that, if a taxpayer does not receive notification of the mailing date of the agency decision that commences the appeal period, he or she “can have no reliable basis for knowing the number of days remaining in which to file a petition for review”
- noting that while it was “reasonable” for the legislature to specify the appeal period commenced on the date of mailing, this implied a duty on the part of the Department of Revenue to advise the taxpayer of the date of mailing

## Opinion text

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
Mr. Justice Roberts concurs in the result, believing that the mailing of a dated notice of reassessment three days after the mailing of an undated notice of decision created an ambiguity which on this record should be resolved in favor of the taxpayer.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9749121. Public record. Not legal advice.