Court Opinion

ID: 9693239
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:32:00.806426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:30.965438
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
This case involves cross-appeals from the order of (child and spousal) support entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County (per Davenport, J.) in favor of Nora Coffey and her two children and against Louis Coffey.
For the reasons that follow, I cannot join in all of the Majority’s conclusions. To start, I have examined the support order under an abuse of discretion standard. See Fee v. Fee, 344 Pa.Super. 276, 496 A.2d 793 (1985). In doing so, I have examined the trial transcripts (of 600 pages) generated by the 4-day nonjury trial, as well as other relevant documents presented by the parties to buttress their respective arguments.
Initially, I would observe that I cannot agree with the Majority’s determination that the trial court’s allowance of the husband’s charitable and business expenses, in calculating his net income, was error. There is evidence in the record that the law firm for whom the husband worked “expected” members of the firm to allocate a specific percentage of their salary for charitable purposes backed by the firm, and that the amount was automatically deducted from one’s wages each pay period. As for the deductions allowed by the trial court for the husband’s business entertainment and mileage, this could be attributed to the “cost of doing business”.
*205To put the matter in perspective (and street parlance), the husband had to cater to the existing and prospective clients, and a means by which to create or perpetuate this business relationship was by expending money to entertain (be it in a social, political or charitable context). This is a factor which is more a reality than fantasy and is even granted credence by the allowance of such deductions by the Internal Revenue Service.7 Thus, to the extent that the Majority would disapprove of the “operating” expenses incurred by the husband as a means of doing business, and, in turn, maintain or improve his position in the hierarchy of the law firm, I would allow the same as did the court below.
On the question of the trial court’s failure to allocate the support order between spousal and child payments, the matter is resolvable given that the husband had offered (and the wife/appellant had agreed at one point in the case) to file a joint return. This would discount the negative tax consequences flowing from a non-allocable support order. However, as is so often the situation in domestic relations cases, the spurning of one spouse by the other generates such enmity between the two that little, if any, cooperation *206is forthcoming to ameliorate any of the (resolvable) problems, be they in the tax area or in the allocation of monies or resources.
To the .extent that the court below may have erred in calculating various deductions {e.g., mortgage payment), a remand is appropriate to rectify the mistabulation.
Lastly, I conclude, as did the trial court, that the wife/Nora Coffey is “employable”. Her past work experience and extensive involvement in the HERS Foundation (established by Nora in 1978-79) prompts this writer to agree (as did the court below on the question of the credibility of the experts presented by both parties) that Nora Coffey does have skills that are transferrable to the market place. To say otherwise would be to ignore totally her educational and work background recounted with specificity in the trial court’s opinion, not to mention the day-to-day involvement of Nora Coffey in the operation of the HERS Foundation as a counselor and the driving force as to its inception, perpetuation and ongoing annual conferences held by the Foundation.
I see no reason to disturb the trial court’s credibility findings, a subject which is within the trial court’s bailiwick and not to be disturbed where the record is supportive of its findings of fact and conclusions of law.
As this Court has done in the past, there is no reason to think that the appellant/wife, once she makes the effort to secure employment, and is either unsuccessful or the monies paid for the position obtained falls short of the trial court’s estimated “earning capacity”, to come back into court to seek a modification of the support order. See, e.g., Mazzei v. Mazzei 331 Pa.Super. 432, 480 A.2d 1111 (1984). There is nothing in the law that would foreclose the wife from petitioning the court to review her employment effort and having the projected “earning capacity” assigned to her by the court altered premised on the reality of her attempts) to obtain a job. Id.
*207For the reasons herein stated, I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part to the actions of the Majority.

. See Publication 17 ("Your Federal Income Tax”) of the Internal Revenue Service, which allows a contributor to deduct charitable contributions, subject to certain limits, made to a qualified organization. There was no indication at trial that the charities receiving money from the husband’s firm were not "qualified organizations” under federal tax law. Thus, payments exacted from the husband by his law firm, as a matter of course from his wages, were properly allowed by the trial court as a legitimate expense (to preserve his position with the firm).
Also, the Internal Revenue Service allows deductions for entertainment expenses "incurred for the production of income”, Id.; the husband’s accounting that his attempt to endear himself to existing and prospective clients manifested itself in the form of lunches, banquets and the purchasing of various tickets for events sponsored or endorsed by the existing or prospective client warranted their deductibility.
Given that the Internal Revenue Service allows for the cost of such items in the form of deductions, I see no reason why the same should not apply in calculating one’s net income for support purposes. There was no evidence proffered that the husband intentionally exposed himself to such expenses for the purpose of diminishing his “spendable” income, and, thus, painting a false financial picture in assessing his support obligations.