2002 Pa. Super. 419 - Commonwealth v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Critically, however, the employee of the Court Administrator’s Office admitted that she did not have any personal recollection of preparing a notice of Appellant’s summary appeal hearing on October 31, 2001, or delivering such a notice to a tipstaff to place in the regular place of mailing on that day. Moreover, and most importantly, the employee acknowledged that there was no official record kept of any of the notices which had been prepared on October 31, 2001, nor was any record kept of the notices which had been prepared and given to the tipstaff for delivery to the mailroom on that day. It was stipulated by the parties that all mail from the court administrator’s office was brought to the mailroom by tipstaffs where it was metered and left for the postal service to pick up. An employee of the Beaver County mail-room testified generally as to what happened in the event that a letter was returned by the postal service, namely that she would return it to the courthouse office from which it originated. She admitted that she had no recollection as to whether a letter addressed to Appellant had ever been returned to the courthouse. She also acknowledged that she did not keep track of the flow of mail from various offices to the mail-room. Additionally, there were no county mailing records introduced at the hearing to show that this specific notice had been mailed to Appellant, nor were any other suitable records produced to show the mailing of the notice such as a certificate ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2003 Pa. Super. 252 - Breza v. Don Farr Moving & Storage Co. · 2012 Pa. Super. 141 - Szymanski v. Dotey

2. “Provident claims that it mailed the notice of premium due and the late payment offer. Furman Enterprises has denied receipt of each of these documents. As a result, this case is governed by the Mailbox Rule, which is the law in Pennsylvania. Under this rule, depositing a properly addressed letter with prepaid postage with the U.S. Postal Service raises a presumption that it reached its destination in due course. The Mailbox rule may also be invoked by proving that a letter had been written and signed in the usual course of business and placed in the regular place of mailing. Provident, the party seeking to invoke the presumption of receipt, must offer direct evidence that the notice of premium due and the late payment offer were deposited in a post office or were prepared in the regular course of business and placed in the regular place of mailing. Provident must show by direct evidence that it actually mailed the notice of premium due and the late payment offer to Furman Enterprises. Mailing must be proved by direct evidence. There must be some direct evidence, either that an item was prepared and deposited in the mail or prepared and placed in the usual place of mailing, in order for the presumption of receipt of that item to apply. Evidence may either be direct evidence or circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is direct proof of a fact, such as testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw, heard or did. Circumstantial evidence is proof of one or more fa”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2007 Pa. Super. 388 - Geise v. Nationwide Life & Annuity Co. of America

3. “In the case at bar, the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing on Appellant’s motion did not establish that the hearing notice setting the date for Appellant’s trial had actually in fact been mailed, nor did it establish that this notice had been prepared in the ordinary course of business and placed in the regular place of mailing. As recounted above, at the hearing of January 3, 2002, an employee of the Beaver County Court Administrator’s Office testified as to the general practice which existed in Beaver County for the preparation and sending out of all notices of summary appeal hearings. The employee testified as to how she prepares all hearing notices, by entering the case number assigned to the case by the Clerk of Courts into her computer which then automatically generates the hearing notice. She further testified that after she prepares such notices, she then has them delivered to the mailroom via tipstaff. She indicated in her testimony that she did not know if the notice of appeal hearing contained in the Clerk of Courts file was the actual notice sent in the case, but she opined that it was “consistent” with the type of notice that would ordinarily be generated.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2003 Pa. Super. 252 - Breza v. Don Farr Moving & Storage Co.