Court Opinion

ID: 9652348
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:22:38.185077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:50.509978
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I should rest affirmance entirely on the consent order, and I join in so much of the-majority’s opinion as concerns that order. The majority, however, goes on to say that “equity jurisdiction cannot be conferred upon the court by consent.” Majority Opinion at 519. I do not see why not.
There are two sorts of “jurisdiction”: “personal” and “subject matter.” Commonwealth v. Barnett, 199 Pa. 161, 48 A. 976 (1901). One may always confer personal jurisdiction on a court, by submitting oneself to the court. Yentzer v. Taylor Wine Co., Inc., 409 Pa. 338, 186 A.2d 396 (1962); Ciammaichella Appeal, 369 Pa. 278, 85 A.2d 406 (1952). One may never confer subject matter jurisdiction on a court. Appeal of Kramer, 445 Pa. 238, 282 A.2d 386 (1971); Calabrese v. Collier Twp. Mun. Auth., 430 Pa. 289, 240 A.2d 544 (1968).-
To speak of a court’s “equity jurisdiction” confuses this distinction; one should instead speak of the court’s “equity side.” Suppose a court with personal jurisdiction of the parties, and capable of trying cases on both the equity side and law side. (In other words, suppose a court like the lower court here.) If one of the parties files an appropriate *521preliminary objection, a given case may be transferred from the equity side to the law side. Pa.R.C.P. 1509(c); Allegheny Plastics, Inc. v. Stuyvesant Ins. Co., 414 Pa. 381, 200 A.2d 775 (1964). If, however, for whatever reason, no objection is filed, the case will not be transferred; although the case should not be on the equity side, the objection that it should not be will have been waived. Jones v. Amsel, 388 Pa. 47, 130 A.2d 119 (1957); Brobst v. Brobst, 384 Pa. 530, 121 A.2d 178 (1956). Thus, by failing to object the parties will indeed have conferred “equity jurisdiction” on the court; and since the case will remain within the court’s subject matter jurisdiction, the court may proceed to decide it, see Jones v. Amsel, supra; 5 Goodrich-Amram 2d 127, even though the court retains the power, sua sponte, to transfer it to the law side, Jones v. Amsel, supra.