Court Opinion

ID: 9695766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:28:57.935149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:16.255834
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
In Coxe v. Coxe, 246 Pa.Super. 231, 369 A.2d 1297 (1976), I concluded that in reviewing the record of a divorce case that turned on credibility we should act as follows:
If we do not take “de novo” too literally, and if we make an earnest effort to give the master’s findings on credibility “the fullest consideration,” I think that at *264least in most cases we shall not miss the mark by much. If in a given case, we conclude to reject the master’s findings, we should explain in detail the basis of our rejection. Thereby we shall avoid, at least as much as possible, the danger of making an arbitrary decision.
Dissenting opinion at-.
Here, the majority has not explained in detail why it has rejected the master’s findings. I nevertheless agree with the majority’s conclusion that the findings should be rejected. My explanation is as follows.
No decision regarding credibility is involved. As indicated by the majority at page 262 of its opinion, appellant himself and Mrs. Russell both gave testimony that showed plainly enough that appellant had been unfaithful to appellee. The master’s error was in failng to recognize that appellee’s accusations were therefore justified, and so could not constitute indignities.
I admit that to a certain extent this conclusion arises from an independent review of the record. However, as I discussed in Coxe, we are obliged to make an independent review, so long as we recognize the limitations inherent in the fact that we have not seen the witnesses. To conclude here that no divorce should be granted does not transgress those limitations but rather represents, I submit, a proper discharge of our responsibility.