Broadie v. Hall

15 Pa. D. & C.3d 182, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 336
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County
DecidedJuly 2, 1980
Docketno. D2243 of 1975
StatusPublished

This text of 15 Pa. D. & C.3d 182 (Broadie v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Broadie v. Hall, 15 Pa. D. & C.3d 182, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 336 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1980).

Opinion

KAPLAN, J.,

— This case is before the court on defendant’s petition to dismiss paternity proceedings which arose from the complaint for support filed by plaintiff on behalf of her non-marital child, Oliver Broadie, born January 25, 1975.

The procedural history of this case is a key element in its adjudication. The original action at the above number was filed August 1, 1975. In re[183]*183sponse thereto and ancillary to his contest of paternity, defendant filed a petition on August 20, 1975 requesting that all parties submit to blood tests prior to further proceedings. In addition, defendant requested a jury trial. On August 21, 1975 Judge Sparvero of this court certified the case for blood tests and eventual jury trial.

Having neither retained counsel nor taken further recorded action, plaintiff was sent a cer-. tified letter on February 27, 1976 by Judge Brosky, then Administrative Judge of the Family Division, cautioning her that failure to take some action on her pending law suit by April 1,1976 would result in the entry of an order for compulsory non-suit.

No such order followed, but on September 23, 1976 plaintiff caused a criminal action to be filed by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office against defendant, founded upon 18 Pa.C.S.A. §4323 (since repealed) for neglect to support a bastard child.

Some confusion existed during the consideration of this matter as to the disposition of the criminal case against defendant, but this court’s independent investigation undertaken for purposes of clarification has eliminated that concern. Apparent difficulties encountered in locating defendant for preliminary hearing before the justice of the peace (now district justice) resulted in the case being forwarded to the Criminal Division where, on December 15, 1976 after argument by counsel, it was referred back to the justice of the peace for preliminary hearing. Subsequent inquiries by plaintiff herein to the justice of the peace were met with a recommendation that the action be pursued in the Family Division. Eventually, the criminal action was dismissed on the court’s own motion, for over two years’ inactivity, pursuant to Pa.R.J.A. [184]*1841901. However, this was not doné until after this most recent action taken by plaintiff within the Family Division for determination of paternity and for support.

In his petition now before this court, defendant has cited McConnell v. Schmidt, 234 Pa. Superior Ct. 400, 339 A. 2d 578 (1975), as authority for the proposition that lapse of the time legislatively established as the statute of limitations on criminal determinations of paternity bars pursuit of a civil remedy for failure to support. The court in McConnell stipulated that the only means by which the parental duty imposed by The Pennsylvania Civil Procedural Support Law of July 13, 1953, P.L. 431, sec. 1, 62 P.S. §2043.31 et seq., could be enforced against the putative father of an illegitimate child was through a criminal prosecution for bastardy or “nonsupport of an illegitimate” following a determination of paternity ancillary thereto.

Although McConnell was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as interlocutory in nature and therefore inappropriate for appellate review, 463 Pa.. 118, 344 A. 2d 277 (1975), the statement of the law therein found new life in Com. ex rel. Yentzer v. Carpenter, 240 Pa. Superior Ct. 202, 362 A. 2d 1101 (1976). There, the court taking note of the procedural nature of McConnell’s disposition, reaffirmed the substantive principle enunciated therein, holding that the sole forum appropriate for jury determination of contested paternity, absent a waiver, was a criminal action.

The court further held that “. . . a civil action cannot be maintained absent a waiver or admission if the criminal statute of limitations has expired.” . Yentzer at 207. (Emphasis supplied.) See also Com. ex rel. Kolodziejski v. Tancredi, 230 Pa. Superior [185]*185Ct. 710, 326 A. 2d 532 (1974) (allocatur refused). This follows logically since the criminal statutory remedy was the only method which existed for determination and adjudication of paternity.

A hybrid civil proceeding employing a criminal standard of proof was suggested by dissenters in McConnell, Tancredi and Yentzer, supra, but was rejected by the majority as a procedure more properly established by legislative action. The substance of that rejection was not that the obligation to support no longer bound the putative father, but that the anomalous peculiarities of the applicable law provided no other means for adjudication of disputed paternity outside the criminal context. That the underlying support obligation itself was unáffected by this procedural roadblock is evidenced by the recurring emphasis in the appellate opinions on disputed proceedings, with the clear implication that an admission of paternity or waiver thereof could serve as the basis for an action under the Support Law even beyond the statutory period.

This system elaborately protected the rights of the putative father, without regard for, and to the almost certain detriment of, the mother and child whose rights were afforded no comparable protection. In Matthews v. Cuff, 254 Pa. Superior Ct. 65, 385 A. 2d 526 (1978), the procedural hammerlock imposed by the Supreme and Superior Courts was tightened. In Matthews, an Allegheny County case, defendant secured a dismissal, of the criminal complaint against him in accordance with Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100, the “180 Day Rule,” for the Commonwealth’s failure to commence trial within 180 days of the complaint. A hybrid proceeding of the type described above was then held by Judge [186]*186Brosky of this court (since elevated to the Superior Court) despite defendant’s challenge to the Family Division’s jurisdiction. Applying standards of proof appropriate to a criminal proceeding, the jury held in favor of the plaintiff, thus establishing paternity in the defendant and a consequent duty of child support. On appeal, the Superior Court vacated the verdict and dismissed the action, scoring the hybrid proceeding as violative of the appellate court’s clear mandate prohibiting such procedure.

In passing acknowledgment of the trial court’s concern for the unfortunate predicament of the mother and child, the majority agreed that it is clearly an unfortunate situation but “if more protection is required, it is a legislative matter.” Matthews, supra, at 69; Com. v. Dillworth, 431 Pa. 479, 246 A. 2d 859 (1968); Com. v. Jacobs, 220 Pa. Superior Ct. 31, 279 A. 2d 251 (1971); and Com. ex rel. Yentzer v. Carpenter, supra.

The most recent appellate decision along the lines of Matthews was Com. ex rel. Czuryla v. Toscano, 264 Pa. Superior Ct. 216, 399 A. 2d 744 (1979). There, the court, in a terse per curiam opinion, dismissed the action against defendant putative father, and, again acknowledging the harshness of the result to the mother and her child, utilized the above quotation from Matthews which places the burden for remedial action squarely on the legislature.

Apparently, the Superior Court somehow neglected to consider that almost a year before the announcement of its decision in Czuryla, the (general Assembly had, in fact, acted to rectify the situation so that remand consistent therewith might have been possible. The Civil Procedural Support Law, 62 P.S. §2043.31 et seq., was amended, effec[187]

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Related

Commonwealth v. Dillworth
246 A.2d 859 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
Matthews v. Cuff
385 A.2d 526 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1978)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Yentzer v. Carpenter
362 A.2d 1101 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1976)
In Interest of WMV
268 N.W.2d 781 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1978)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Kolodziejski v. Tancredi
326 A.2d 532 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
McConnell v. Schmidt
339 A.2d 578 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1975)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Czuryla v. Toscano
399 A.2d 744 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)
Commonwealth v. Jacobs
279 A.2d 251 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Magaziner v. Magaziner
253 A.2d 263 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1969)
Safeguard Mutual Insurance v. Williams
345 A.2d 664 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1975)
Kulp v. Lehigh Valley Transit Co.
81 Pa. Super. 296 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1922)

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Bluebook (online)
15 Pa. D. & C.3d 182, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/broadie-v-hall-pactcomplallegh-1980.