Court Opinion

ID: 9695922
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:31:25.719402+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:17.404741
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the majority’s result, but I do not think there was any change in circumstances.
The majority cites Commonwealth ex rel. Stanley v. Stanley, 198 Pa.Super. 15, 179 A.2d 667 (1962), where we agreed that it was not an abuse of discretion for the lower court to deny the allocation requested by the wife only after the award was made. There we said:
If the situation changes and the parties elect to file separate returns . . . the lower court may then *102determine whether to apportion the present order or adjust it.
198 Pa.Super. at 20, 179 A.2d at 669.
Accordingly, in Commonwealth ex rel. Kallen v. Kallen, 202 Pa.Super. 500, 198 A.2d 331 (1964), we found that the husband’s refusal to continue to file a joint income tax return constituted a change in circumstances allowing the lower court to adjust the amount of the award because of the tax consequences.
The present case, however, does not fit within Stanley and Kallen, for here, when the order was modified in 1968, the parties were already filing separate tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service audit has affected the wife and daughter not because of any change in circumstances but because it has brought to light a mistake on the part of the lower court. It is evident from a review of the record, including the notes of testimony, that the court intended the order to be for the benefit of the wife and daughter. The court should, therefore, have provided in the order for an allocation between the wife and daughter. I do not think we need to go beyond this fact. A court should always be allowed to correct a mistake, so long as no injustice will result. Injustice would result, were the correction here made retroactive, but not if it is only prospective.
CERCONE, J., joins in this opinion.