Court Opinion

ID: 9645583
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:29:08.090353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:29.556871
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
Helen and Spero Diamond were married in September, 1958. They separated in January, 1975. An action in divorce was filed on June 23, 1981. Hearings were held on various dates between September 27, 1983 and March 2, 1984. The Master filed his report on April 17, 1985. The trial court dismissed exceptions filed to the report and recommendations of the Master and entered a final decree on September 4, 1985. A review of the record reveals that the task of untangling the parties’ complicated financial affairs was made even more difficult because of the time intervening between separation and final decree. I agree with the majority that the record discloses no abuse of discretion and that the decree of the learned trial judge must be affirmed.
The majority has ably reviewed the various holdings of the trial court, and I do not intend to review again each individual issue which has been raised by appellant. Because my interpretation of Section 401(e)(4) of the Divorce Code, 23 P.S. § 401(e)(4), varies slightly from that of the majority, however, I would offer the following comments.
Section 401(e)(4) expresses the intent of the legislature that “marital property” available for distribution between the spouses does not include “[pjroperty acquired after separation until the date of divorce.” The language of the statute is clear and straightforward. Property acquired by either spouse after separation is not marital property and is not available for distribution between the spouses.
In the instant case, the trial court was called upon to apply this statutory language to improvements made to real estate by virtue of the expenditure of time, labor and capital by one of the parties after separation. With respect *118to such improvements, I would hold that they are not “marital property.” I would do so regardless of the nature and degree of change effected by the improvement and regardless of the cost of the improvement. Thus, I agree with the majority that a building erected on a tract of land which was unimproved at the time of separation is clearly not marital property. However, I would apply the same rule without equivocation to improvements made to subdivide a previously undeveloped tract. I would hold that the enhanced value of a previously undivided tract of real estate brought about by engineered plot plans and the installation of streets, curbs, and utility lines, is not marital property if the improvements were made by a spouse after separation. Therefore, I am unable to agree with the majority’s suggestion, at page 111, that “[t]he increase in value due to subdivision of the acreage and building roads does not amount to the acquisition of a new, distinct asset which must be defined as separate property.” In my judgment, the improvements brought about by the subdivision of the Sherwood Forest land after separation were not marital property.
The trial judge determined that the value of the Sherwood Forest tract should, in any event, be determined as of the date of separation, and the majority, interestingly enough, affirms. The majority affirms, however, on the grounds that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion by selecting that date for evaluating the same. See: Sergi v. Sergi, 351 Pa.Super. 588, 506 A.2d 928 (1986). I would affirm because, in my judgment, the improvements made by subdividing the tract after separation were not marital property. To the extent that the majority suggests otherwise, I respectfully disagree.
As a general rule, any appreciation in the value of marital property which is brought about by the efforts of one of the spouses after separation is not marital property, and it should not be distributed as such. Such a rule will “have the advantage of allowing the parties to get on with their separate lives as quickly as possible without being required *119to calculate the effect of each expenditure of time or capital upon a later decree of distribution.” Sergi v. Sergi, supra, 351 Pa.Superior Ct. at 601, 506 A.2d at 935 (Concurring Opinion by Wieand, J.).
If the application of such a rule should, in an unusual case, cause inequity, the inequity can be corrected by the manner in which the court distributes assets which do constitute marital property. This, too, the legislature made provision for. Thus, in Section 401(d) of the Divorce Code,1 the legislature provided that in making distribution of marital property, a court shall consider, inter alia, the following: “(10) [t]he economic circumstances of each party at the time the division of property is to become effective.” This power is sufficiently broad to lodge in trial judges the flexibility which will enable them to do economic justice between parties whose marriage is being terminated after a long separation.

. 23 P.S. § 401(d).