Court Opinion

ID: 9695160
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:10:00.223331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:09.328836
License: Public Domain

CIRILLO, President Judge,
concurring:
Because I disagree with the majority’s disposition of this case, I respectfully concur.
As this court held in DeFay v. McMeekin, 352 Pa.Super. 409, 508 A.2d 324 (1986), a procedurally identical case, where a Pennsylvania court lacks personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant, a default judgment entered against such a defendant is a nullity and, therefore, we need not reach the merits of appellant’s argument in support of opening the default judgment. Id., 352 Pa.Superior Ct. at 413, 508 A.2d at 326. When a court is powerless to enter a judgment, any judgment entered by that court is invalid at its inception and a subsequent petition to open that judgment is similarly outside the jurisdiction of that *194court. See In re Patterson’s Estate, 341 Pa. 177, 19 A.2d 165 (1941) (an adjudication of a court without jurisdiction is void).
The majority correctly finds that Pennsylvania does not have personal jurisdiction over Diane Holden and that, therefore, the chancellor had no power to enter a default judgment against her. It then resolves this case by opening that judgment. When this court reverses the denial of a petition seeking to open a judgment, we are, in essence, saying that the chancellor erred in not having granted it. We cannot say both that there was no jurisdiction for him to act and that he should have granted the relief sought. Opening the judgment is clearly an exercise of the jurisdiction over this defendant which we have said the court below lacked. The majority’s disposition tacitly acknowledges the jurisdiction of our courts over Diane Holden even while declaring that no such jurisdiction existed. This is logically inconsistent.
For the foregoing reasons, I would vacate the default judgment for lack of jurisdiction, set aside the order denying the petition to open that judgment as moot, and dismiss the underlying complaint.
ROWLEY, MONTEMURO and JOHNSON, JJ., join.