Court Opinion

ID: 9758831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:51:55.898942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:52.171675
License: Public Domain

*110Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Pomeroy:
I respectfully dissent. The Court, in my judgment, malees two errors. The first is in its analysis of the nature of this action, leading it to the faulty conclusion that it is a matter covered by the Orphans’ Court Act of 19511 and hence now cognizable by the Orphans’ Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County. The second, and in my view the more serious mistake, is the disposition here made of the case, assuming it should have been brought in the Orphans’ Court division instead of in equity, namely, an outright dismissal. The proper remedy, if filing was made in the wrong division, was not to dismiss, but to transfer the case to the proper division; there is no justification whatever for putting the plaintiff out of court.
1. The Court construes the complaint as seeking specific performance of an agreement by a decedent to sell personal property, and as such covered by §301(9) of the Orphans’ Court Act, or as seeking to have adjudicated title to personal property (shares of stock of the decedent) registered in decedent’s name and in the possession of his personal representative, and as such covered by §301(13) of the Orphans’ Court Act. In either situation, admittedly, subject-matter jurisdiction would have been in the Orphans’ Court prior to the adoption in 1968 of the new Article V of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Since the effective date of that article, the jurisdiction is in the Court of Common Pleas, but to be exercised through its Orphans’ Court division.
The cause of action asserted by the complaint, however, does not clearly fit either category relied upon by the majority. The suit is not against a decedent or his personal representative, but against the corporation of *111which decedent was an officer and shareholder, and decedent’s widow, who allegedly succeeded to his stock interest. It is based on a stock purchase agreement entered into by appellant with the appellee corporation and the decedent, but it does not seek specific performance, and there is no dispute as to title to the stock. The complaint rather states a classic type of equitable action, alleging mishandling of corporate affairs by the decedent’s widow, refusal to allow plaintiff, a shareholder, access to examine the corporate books, fraudulent preparation of a corporate financial statement so as to inflate book value and thereby prevent appellant from exercising his stock option, etc. The relief prayed for is access to the corporate records, cessation of payments by the corporation to the widow, ascertainment of the fair book value of the corporation, and allowance of a reasonable time to plaintiff to make settlement for the shares which he is entitled to purchase. No wrongdoing or breach of contract by the decedent is alleged, nor by the widow in the capacity of executrix. While ultimately specific performance may be involved, that time has not yet arrived. In my judgment, the case was properly brought in equity.
2. Even if it be assumed, however, that the Orphans’ Court division is the proper forum, dismissal of the complaint is surely not the proper remedy. Such an ouster harks back to the days when there were separate Orphans’ Courts, and ignores completely their abolition in 1968 by the new Judiciary Article, and the establishment of a “unified judicial system” in Pennsylvania.
There is now in Pennsylvania but one court of “unlimited original jurisdiction in all cases,” the reconstituted courts of common pleas, one in each judicial district. Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. V, Sec. 5(b). Section 4 of the Schedule to the Judiciary Article provides that in judicial districts such as the *11231st district (Lehigh County) which have separate orphans’ courts, such courts become “orphans’ court divisions” of the courts of common pleas, and that the courts of common pleas “shall exercise the jurisdiction presently exercised by the separate orphans’ courts through their respective orphans’ court division.” There has been no legislation since the adoption of the new Judiciary Article in 1968 which has altered the allocation of subject-matter jurisdiction as between divisions established by Section 17 of the Schedule. If these changes in court structure brought about in 1968 mean anything, it is that what once were challenges to the very competence of a court to hear a lawsuit now are simply questions of internal court administration. This is not to say that we should sanction a cavalier disregard of purposely drawn distinctions among the several divisions, intended to recognize the expertise of the judges who staff them. It does mean, however, that the consequence for procedural errors of the sort here involved should not be total expulsion from the judicial system, but rather adjustment within.
Thus there can be no question that the lower court had jurisdiction of the instant suit; the only question is through what division of the court the jurisdiction should be exercised. If indeed the plaintiff chose the wrong division, the proper course is for the lower court to transfer the case to the correct division, not to dismiss the action, as was done here. Cf. Posner v. Sheridan, 451 Pa. 51, 299 A. 2d 309 (1973); Shaffer v. Dooley, 452 Pa. 414, 308 A. 2d 597 (1973).

 Act of August 10, 1951, P. L. 1163, Art III, §301, 20 P.S. §2080.301.