Opinion ID: 2339397
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying her petition to open or strike the divorce decree. That court was, she says, without jurisdiction to enter the divorce decree because an appeal in the case was before this Court. We agree. First, as a factual matter, we note that the divorce decree was, indeed, entered while the counsel fees appeal was before this Court. [3] Second, it is clear that, as the law stood at that time, the taking of an appeal acted to divest the trial court of jurisdiction over the case. [4] In Wilson v. Wilson, 297 Pa.Super. 14, 23, 442 A.2d 1189, 1193-94 (1981), this Court held that the trial court was without jurisdiction to proceed after an appeal was taken from an alimony pendente lite order. We are, therefore, led to the inevitable conclusion that all proceedings in the lower court after February 26, 1980, when the record was lodged in the Superior Court, are null and void for lack of jurisdiction in the lower court to proceed with this matter after that date. Prozzoly v. Prozzoly, 327 Pa.Super. 326, 332, 475 A.2d 820, 824 (1984) treated an appeal from the denial of alimony pendente lite and an award of counsel fees. This Court wrote: that an appeal from an order granting or denying alimony pendente lite and counsel fees operates to divest the trial court of jurisdiction to proceed further with the action in divorce. . . . In Sutliff v. Sutliff, 326 Pa.Super. 496, 502, 474 A.2d 599, 601-02 (1984), this Court held that interlocutory awards are appealable in a divorce proceeding. Of interest for our purposes is the statement: In so holding, we recognize that some delay in the principal litigation may result because the general rule is that an appeal removes jurisdiction from the lower court, see Pa.R.A.P. 1701. . . . Wilson, Prozzoly and Sutliff are unanimous in holding that the pendency of an appeal divests the trial court of jurisdiction. In some instances this Court, upon petition, has granted a trial court permission to proceed in matters not related to issues under appeal. Pa.R.A.P. 1701(c). The Court of Common Pleas was, while the case was on appeal, without the power to proceed further in the case. Orders imposed in the absence of jurisdiction are, as Wilson held, null and void. Accordingly, the final divorce decree of February 16, 1983, as amended March 16, 1983, is vacated.