413 Pa. Super. 442 - Commonwealth v. Wanner’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently March 2014
24 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 324 Pa. Super. 420 - Commonwealth v. Taylor · 342 Pa. Super. 375 - Hoffman v. Memorial Osteopathic Hospital · Riddle Memorial Hospital v. Dohan · Commonwealth v. Heck · Commonwealth v. Cornish
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Commonwealth presented a .136 per cent blood alcohol count as evidence of appellant’s intoxication. The test which produced this reading was not performed on whole blood. Rather, a review of the record shows that the hospital performed a test on the blood plasma.... When a blood test is performed specifically for legal analysis, the test is performed on whole blood. “Whole blood” is defined as ‘blood from which none of the elements have been removed.’_ [Instantly], [a] comprehensive review of the record shows that the Commonwealth did not produce any evidence that would allow the fact finder to convert the result of the plasma test into an amount of alcohol by weight in the whole blood. As the statute requires a “whole blood’ analysis, we see no reason to distinguish a test on serum from a test on plasma. As both plasma and serum tests are performed on only a portion of whole blood, both tests require conversion to establish the correlative whole blood test result. In the absence of any converting evidence, appellant’s convictions for driving while under the influence of alcohol and homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol cannot be sustained.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“While our statutes do not dictate in what form blood must be tested, only evidence of the amount of alcohol by weight in the person’s blood can support a conviction based upon a violation of § 3731. Where a test is performed on blood serum rather than whole blood, the fact finder must be informed of this and must be provided with evidence of the alcohol by weight in the defendant’s blood in order to properly sustain a conviction based upon a violation of § 3731. Evidence offered of a reading based upon a test of blood serum, without conversion, will not suffice- [W]e caution the Commonwealth that a conviction based upon a violation of § 3731(a)(4) will not be upheld absent clear evidence that the alcohol content in the defendant’s blood is .10 per cent or greater and that evidence of test results based solely on blood serum will not suffice to sustain a conviction.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“§ 3731. Driving under influence of alcohol or controlled substance (a) Offense defined. — A person shall not drive, operate or be in actual physical control of the movement of a vehicle in any of the following circumstances. ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ (4) While the amount of alcohol by weight in the blood of: (i) an adult is 0.10% or greater; ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.