Court Opinion

ID: 9762155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:14:12.947958+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:31.288386
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, President Judge,
dissenting:
The issue here is personal jurisdiction. Although the cases are not easily harmonized, cf. Crompton v. Park *253Ward Motors, Inc., 299 Pa.Super. 40, 445 A.2d 137 (1982) (burden on plaintiff); Whalen v. Walt Disney World Company, 274 Pa.Super. 246, 418 A.2d 389 (1980) (same) with Gulentz v. Fosdick, 320 Pa.Super. 38, 466 A.2d 1049 (1983) (burden on moving party); Holt Hauling & Warehousing Systems, Inc. v. Aronow Roofing Company, 309 Pa.Super. 158, 454 A.2d 1131 (1983) (same), the better view is that once an objection to personal jurisdiction is properly raised, the plaintiff (appellant) bears the burden of proof. In my view, appellant met her burden by establishing that her husband (appellee) had been a Pennsylvania domiciliary until August 1980. Since it is presumed that he continued to be a Pennsylvania domiciliary, In re Estate of McKinley, 461 Pa. 731, 337 A.2d 851 (1975), it was his burden to prove that he became domiciled elsewhere. I am satisfied that he did not meet that burden. I believe that all appellee intended to do in Nevada was to get a divorce. I am quite unpersuaded that he intends, or ever intended, to make his home there. Nothing about his past life justifies such a finding.
The order of the trial court should be reversed.