Court Opinion

ID: 9707249
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:06:37.24669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:29.837762
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I respectfully disagree with the majority’s holding that no issues have been preserved for appellate review. Although Pa.R.C.P. 1920.55, as the majority has observed, requires the filing of exceptions within ten days after notice has been mailed of the filing of the Master’s report, the rule also provides:
Matters not covered by exceptions are deemed waived unless, prior to entry of the final decree, leave is granted to file exceptions raising those matters.
In the instant case, appellant did file exceptions, but they were filed more than ten days after notice of the filing of the Master’s report had been mailed. Although appellant did not request and the trial court did not enter a written order allowing the late filing of exceptions, the fact is that the trial court accepted the exceptions, considered them, and resolved them before entering a decree distributing the parties’ marital property. For all practical purposes, therefore, the trial court did allow the late filing of appellant’s exceptions, albeit not expressly. The trial court thus had an opportunity to consider the issues raised in appellant’s
*325exceptions, and our ability to conduct a meaningful appellate review has not been impaired in any way. Under these circumstances, I would hold that compliance with the rule has been achieved and that the issues raised in appellant’s tardy exceptions have not been waived.
This Court has recently held that the recommendations of the Master are advisory only. Reed v. Reed, 354 Pa.Super. 284, 287, 511 A.2d 874, 876 (1986); McBride v. McBride, 335 Pa.Super. 296, 298, 484 A.2d 141, 142 (1984). A final decree must be entered by the trial court. Reed v. Reed, supra. In this case, the appeal was properly taken from the trial court’s final decree, and that decree is now before this Court for review. The issue raised sua sponte by the majority, therefore, is not jurisdictional. As such, it can be waived. In this case it has been waived, for appellee has failed to raise the issue in this Court. Therefore, I would conduct a review of the decree entered by the trial court and would consider the issues raised by the appellant in her exceptions and in the brief which she has filed in this Court.
Those issues, however, have been adequately discussed and correctly resolved in the opinion of the trial court. Because I find no abuse of discretion in the decree of the trial court, I would affirm.