Court Opinion

ID: 9757053
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:16:17.354362+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.414536
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I agree with Mr. Justice Packel’s conclusion that this Court has jurisdiction in this case and join in Part I of his opinion. I also agree that the trial court properly held Donald McKinney in contempt for flouting the authority of the court. I cannot agree, however, with the majority’s reversal of the judgment of civil contempt against Linda McKinney. I also cannot join in Mr. Justice Packel’s discussion in Part III of the impact of an extra-state determination upon civil contempt because there has been no showing by an interested party of the existence of the foreign decree and the matter has not otherwise been raised.
Mr. Justice Packel presumes that because Linda McKinney did not have physical possession of the child, she was powerless to comply with the order of the court directing her to produce the child. This conclusion is unwarranted. The trial court, after hearing Linda McKinney’s evasive and *9contradictory testimony denying any knowledge of the disappearance of the child or the location of her husband and child, found her testimony incredible and determined that “although the father is no doubt the dominant influence in this arrangement . . . Linda has cooperated and continues to cooperate in this situation. We simply cannot believe her testimony and suspect that she is testifying as her husband has directed her to do. . ” Indeed, it is undisputed that the child was in Linda McKinney’s physical possession when the writ of habeas corpus was served upon her, and that she immediately called her husband to inform him of the writ. Within a day, according to Linda McKinney’s testimony, the father snatched the child and fled the jurisdiction. It is equally undisputed that Linda McKinney failed to make a good faith attempt to comply with the order.
The trial court could reasonably conclude that Linda McKinney was not, as Mr. Justice Packel believes, wholly detached from the series of events leading to the child’s absence from Pennsylvania, but was in fact a willing and active participant in what the court called a “subterfuge to avoid a hearing on the merits ... to resolve the best interests of the child.” There is every reason to believe that Linda McKinney, as one of the two participants in this subterfuge, retains the ability to cause production of the child as ordered by the court. Of course, if she later demonstrates that she lacks such power, or that she has failed, despite good faith efforts, to comply with the order, she may request the court to afford her relief from the contempt citation. See In Re Martorano, 464 Pa. 66, 80, 346 A.2d 22, 29 (1975). Until Linda McKinney makes such a showing, I would uphold the order of the court.
O’BRIEN, J., joins in this concurring and dissenting opinion.