Court Opinion

ID: 9757798
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:59:33.910364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:54:50.854772
License: Public Domain

HESTER, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I must dissent from the majority opinion based upon the standard of review utilized therein. The majority articulates a belief that this court should engage in a broad and comprehensive review of the record so as to reach an independent decision regarding the custody of these children. In doing so, the majority specifically exceeded the abuse of discretion standard which has traditionally been employed in the past. See Commonwealth ex rel. Spriggs v. Carson, 470 Pa. 290, 368 A.2d 635 (1977) (plurality opinion by Nix, J., with three Justices concurring); McCourt v. Meyers, 268 Pa.Super. 152, 407 A.2d 875 (1979); In re Custody of Neal, 260 Pa.Super. 151, 393 A.2d 1057 (1978); Tobias v. Tobias, 248 Pa.Super. 168, 374 A.2d 1372 (1977). I believe this standard should not be discarded without a thorough and careful analysis of the appropriate function of this court in such cases by either our Supreme Court or an en banc panel of this court.
*347However, applying the abuse of discretion standard, my analysis of this case likewise compels the same conclusion as is reached by the majority. It is a fundamental precept of law that a hearing judge must base his decision on competent evidence. In re Custody of Neal, supra. By considering evidence adduced outside the hearing in the form of investigative reports, the hearing judge abused his discretion. Jones v. Floyd, 276 Pa.Super. 76, 419 A.2d 102 (1980). For this reason, I am constrained to agree that a new hearing is mandated in this case. At that time, it would be beneficial to hear some impartial witnesses, although not necessarily all of those potential witnesses enumerated by the majority, in order to provide the court with objective observations independent of close family friends or spouses.