A Pine Grove man will have to pay costs and a fine after a three-judge state Superior Court panel rejected his appeal of a summary conviction stemming from a code enforcement dispute involving a Saint Clair property he owns.
Lee S. Yom, 50, filed his first appeal too late to have Schuylkill County Court hear it, the panel rule in a four-page opinion filed Monday in Pottsville.
"Yom's appeal was untimely and the trial court did not err in quashing (it)," Senior Judge John L. Musmanno wrote.
By so ruling, the panel affirmed the Feb. 14 ruling of county Judge James P. Goodman, who dismissed Yom's attempt to challenge the Nov. 27, 2012, decision of Magisterial District Judge David A. Plachko.
Plachko, Port Carbon, had found Yom guilty of removing a condemnation placard from the rental property in question, and ordered him to pay costs and a $300 fine, the amounts the defendant now will have to pay.
Plachko had dismissed seven other citations that Yom had received.
Saint Clair officials had issued all eight citations to Yom on Sept. 25, 2012.
In his opinion, Musmanno wrote that Pennsylvania law requires a defendant in a summary case to file an appeal no later than 30 days after his conviction. Since Plachko found Yom guilty on Nov. 27, 2012, the defendant had until Dec. 27, 2012, to file his appeal, according to Musmanno.
Yom's argument that he did not learn of the conviction until Dec. 28, 2012, has no merit and does not change the law, Musmanno wrote.
Musmanno also wrote that Yom's appeal indicated that the conviction was on Nov. 27, 2012.
Judges Sallie Updyke Mundy and Jack A. Panella, the other panel members, joined Musmanno's opinion.