Court Opinion

ID: 9762513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:25:45.455935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:35.224922
License: Public Domain

MONTEMURO, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent.
As the Majority correctly points out, the rational basis test to determine whether a statute is constitutional requires, first, a determination of whether the challenged legislation seeks to promote any legitimate state interest. It must then be decided whether the statute bears a reasonable relationship to the *261intended objective. Commonwealth v. Parker White Metal Company, 512 Pa. 74, 515 A.2d 1358 (1986). However, “the Constitution does not require situations ‘which are different in fact or opinion to be treated in law as though they were the same.’ ” Wells v. Civil Service Commission, 423 Pa. 602, 604, 225 A.2d 554, 555 (1967) cert. denied, 386 U.S. 1035, 87 S.Ct. 1487, 18 L.Ed.2d 598 (quoting Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U.S. 464, 69 S.Ct. 198, 93 L.Ed. 163 (1948)). Indeed, a statute will not be ruled constitutionally invalid under this test “unless it is ‘patently arbitrary’ and bears no rational relationship to a legitimate government interest.” Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677, 93 S.Ct. 1764, 36 L.Ed.2d 583 (1973). The Majority challenges not merely the means of execution, but the legitimacy of the government interest which the statute is expressly designed to promote.
Act 62 is directed at furthering the education of the citizens of this Commonwealth. It operates on the assumption that divorce necessarily involves a disadvantage to the children of broken families, and is intended to assure that children who are thus disadvantaged by the divorce or separation of their parents are not deprived of the opportunity to acquire post secondary school education. In effect, it attempts to maintain the children of divorce in the same position they would have been in had their parents’ marriage remained intact. The Act is not intended to, nor does it, place a premium on the rights of children of divorce while devaluing the same rights for children from intact marriage. It merely recognizes that, in general, divorce has a deleterious effect upon children, which should, insofar as is possible, be redressed. Thus while constitutional principles permit this intended result, a “difference in fact or opinion” recognized by the Legislature as within its purview, the Majority has declared that, at least for college age children, the distinction between the children of broken families and those of intact families simply does not exist.
In rejecting the authenticity of the premise underlying the statute, the Majority also challenges the validity of the legislative interest. It contends that the expressed intention of the *262statute “will not do” because the Legislature actually has no legitimate interest in treating children of broken marriages differently than children of intact marriages. The Majority theorizes that since the children of intact families may be no less in need of funds for purposes of higher education, they are situated similarly to children of divorced or separated parents, and any distinction between them is inconsequential.
It would be difficult to argue successfully that the payment of child support is, in general, an obligation freely acknowledged and willingly undertaken by non-custodial parents. The extraordinary amount of time, attention and money devoted by courts, government agencies and legislatures to fashioning and enforcing support orders is testament to the unfortunate fact that the opposite is true.1 Moreover, the impact of parental non-compliance with support orders on children in need of basic necessities is obvious, hence the stated purpose of the Support Guidelines is to provide for children’s reasonable needs which might, and frequently do, absent enforcement of established orders, otherwise go unmet.2
It has also been widely acknowledged that among the negative effects of divorce on children are those which concern higher education. See e.cj., Smyer and Cooney, Family Relations Across Adulthood: Implications for Alimony and Child Support Decisions, American Bar Association National Symposium on Alimony and Child Support (Apr. 24-25, 1987); Wallerstein and Corbin, “Father Child Relationships After Divorce; Child Support and Educational Opportunity, 20 FAM. L.Q. 109 (1986). • Courts faced with cases similar to the one at bar have also noted, over and over again, that in divorce, the normative rules of behavior may no longer apply. Ex Parte *263Bayliss, 550 So.2d 986 (Ala.1989); Kujawinski v. Kujawinski, 71 Ill.2d 563, 17 Ill.Dec. 801, 376 N.E.2d 1382 (1978); Neudecker v. Neudecker, 577 N.E.2d 960 (Ind.1991); Vrban v. Vrban, 293 N.W.2d 198 (Iowa 1980). Whether because they lose concern for their children’s welfare, or out of animosity toward the custodial parent, non-custodial parents frequently become reluctant to provide financial support for any purpose, but are particularly determined to avoid the costs of a college education. Childers v. Childers, 89 Wash.2d 592, 575 P.2d 201 (1978). Then the custodial parent, who typically has less money than the non-custodial parent, most often becomes the de facto bearer of most, if not all, of the burden of educational expenses, even where the non-custodial parent possesses both resources and background which would inure to the child’s benefit were the parents still married. L. Weitzman, The Divorce Revolution 278 (1985). Such parents, are, in addition, even less inclined to assist with the educational expenses of daughters than of sons. Smyer and Cooney, supra, and Wallerstein, supra. See also, S.F. Goldfarb, “A Model for Fair Allocation of Child Support,” 21 FAMILY L.Q. (Fall 1987).
The courts addressing the issue have uniformly decided that equal protection is not offended by an attempt to equalize the disparate situation faced by children of divorce. Only the means are different. Those facing challenges to a statutory provision have all found that the differences between married and divorced parents establishes the necessity to discriminate between the classes, e.g., Childers; Vrban. Others, in examining judge-made law found an extended dependency justified court intervention. They all, however, delegated to the court the authority to determine the propriety of an award.
In LeClair v. LeClair, 137 N.H. 213, 624 A.2d 1350 (1993), the New Hampshire Supreme Court recognized and addressed the very concerns toward which Act 62 is directed — the disadvantage wrought on children by divorce of their parents, and the necessity for court intervention to protect them from the consequences of this disadvantage. The New Hampshire statute, RSA 458:20, codified decisions in which the New Hamp*264shire Supreme Court had recognized the jurisdiction of the superior court to order divorced parents, consistent with their means, to contribute toward the educational expenses of their college age children.3 Challengers of the statute bore the burden of showing that the court had committed an abuse of discretion, and that the order was “improper and unfair.” Id. at 221, 624 A.2d at 1355. The equal protection argument focused on the parents, finding them similarly situated with respect to the issue. However, the Majority here states that because the focus of Act 62 is the treatment of children, the marital status of their parents is irrelevant.4
This argument is specious,5 since any child support legislation necessarily involves the marital status of the parents. Intact families do not suffer intervention by the courts unless their children are abused or neglected. Recognition of the need for legislative or judicial action to require support for children of broken families is irrefutable, as the continuing governmental efforts to improve collection of support attest. It is unrealistic to conclude, as the Majority does, that merely because children are in need of funds for college rather than subsistence, the effect of their parents marital status has *265magically altered, and that enforcement of an obligation is no longer necessary.
What must be remembered, and what the Majority fails to explore, is that Act 62 does not make mandatory the directive to pay child support for college. Section 4327(e)6 lists standards to assist the court in determining whether or not support is appropriate. Unless these criteria are, in the estimation of the court, met by the parties, no liability exists.
The problem lies with the nature of the liability, which is, quite simply, a moral duty, circumstantially prescribed. Under Act 62, it is owed only by parents who are subject to an existing support obligation, that is, they have acknowledged either voluntarily through contract, or involuntarily through the necessity of court order that a financial responsibility to pay for their children’s upkeep exists. The court has thus already become involved to the extent of entering an order, or there exists another legal mechanism, e.g., separation agreement, through which enforcement can be accomplished and contribution monitored. In intact families, absent abuse or neglect, no such initial intervention has occurred, and the court has no forum in which to enforce a duty imposed on these parents. Compare, Reeves v. Reeves, 584 N.E.2d 589 (Ind.App.1992). Moreover, limitations have been placed on the ability to control children’s education by legislative fiat. *266See, Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972) (state cannot compel school attendance beyond eighth grade where family’s religious beliefs are compromised); Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925) (state could not compel public school attendance for all children between the ages of 8 and 16); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923) (state could not prohibit teaching of German language). Thus intervention in the form of a statute requiring parents of an intact marriage to finance their children’s college education would indeed infringe upon the constitutional/privacy right of the parties.
While it does not necessarily follow that in all cases children of divorce are deprived of parental support for college, or that the reverse is true and all children of intact families are provided with the necessary encouragement and finances, children whose parents are still married most often continue to receive support past majority.7 Equal protection does not demand that every permutation be addressed separately, what is sought is equality not uniformity.
It cannot successfully be argued that the state has no legitimate interest in furthering the education of its citizens. The size of the state university system, the multiplicity of community colleges and other educational programs designed to provide low cost post-secondary training, all attest to the state’s involvement with the goal of bettering the information and functioning level of the attendees. Clearly the Majority accepts this focus, hence its query as to whether the statute would be acceptable were it only altered to require all parents to contribute to the post-secondary educational expenses of their children. However, as noted above, this kind of government mandated action is constitutionally untenable when applied to intact families.
Conventional wisdom once dictated that divorced parents will interact with their children in the same manner as they did during the life of the marriage. Experience has dictated *267otherwise,8 viz., the widespread need for enforcement of court ordered support even from parents for whom compliance is not an economic hardship. It is, after all, these parents at whom Act 62 is aimed. Divorce modifies parental behavior in ways which cannot always be anticipated. To ignore the reality of these differences, and the impact necessarily produced upon the children is shortsighted, as the educational achievements of the next generations are critical to the success of this country in an increasingly competitive world.
The law need not, and should not, change direction to comport with every change in the prevailing social winds. Nor is it designed to redress every psychological and emotional ill which trails in the wake of divorce. However, principles of justice require an unwavering commitment to the protection of the weakest members of our society, our children. Refusal to recognize their weakness breaches the social compact, and violates the basic principles of fairness the law is intended to uphold. Given the consequences of divorce, to deprive children of broken marriages of the economic support which they would normally receive from nuclear families is to deny them equal protection. As the court in Childers, supra, noted, the imposition of a burden of support does establish a classification with discriminatory obligations. However, rather than an arbitrary, unreasonable or unjust classification, there is instead a collection of special powers in equity that the courts, regardless of legislation, have long used to protect the children of broken homes. Id. at 604, 575 P.2d at 208. The disadvantage exists; it cannot be ignored or wished away.
If the Majority’s view prevails, there is no recourse for these children, who will be victimized twice, first by the disruptions, both financial and psychological, of their parents’ divorce, and again by the system which is theoretically designed to protect them. Moreover, such a course will not benefit the children of intact marriages in which, because of a *268parental disinterest in education or a view that non-support encourages the work ethic, the parents will also refuse to assist their children. The result will be no improvement for anyone.
Once the moral imperative which should motivate parents to fulfill their obligations has dissipated, conscious effort by the state must provide a substitute where it is able to do so. That is what the Legislature wisely has done. By disregarding the rational basis advanced for Act 62, the Majority now transforms this Court into a super-Legislature.
Accordingly, I dissent.
CAPPY, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. In fiscal year 1994, Pennsylvania expended over $100,000,000 • to collect over $840,000,000 through the Child Support Enforcement Program, using various mechanisms such as wage attachment. Of these collections, more than $713,000,000 was distributed to non-AFDC families. (Ranking of Region III States Child Support Enforcement, Fiscal Year 1994)

. Nationally, of the $16.3 billion due under court orders in 1993, about $11.2 was actually paid, with only about half of those awarded support receiving the full amount. (Child Support Enforcement, Eighteenth Annual Report to Congress)

. The intention of Pennsylvania’s Legislature in enacting 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 4327 was precisely the same as that of New Hampshire. Passage of Act 62 was a legislative effort to codify thirty years worth of caselaw which began with the Superior Court decision in Ulmer v. Sommerville, 200 Pa.Super. 640, 190 A.2d 182 (1963), and ended with this Court’s decision in Blue v. Blue, 532 Pa. 521, 616 A.2d 628 (1992). See, Historical and Statutory Notes.

. What these assumptions imply is that regardless of the need involved, food, clothing and medical care, or higher education, children qua children are always on an equal footing since they are always in need of parental financial support. Thus, following the Majority’s logic, any legislation which distinguishes between children on the basis of their parents’ marital status is constitutionally suspect, e.g., any law requiring support from parents no longer living in an intact marriage, or never having been in such a marriage.

. As the Amicus points out, there is real question whether Appellee herein possesses standing to contest the supposedly unequal treatment meted out to children by the statute. Moreover, the pleadings filed by Appellee clearly establish himself as the party receiving unequal treatment. (Defendant’s Amendment to Petition to Modify, Para. 6.a.i.) Arguably, therefore, the pivot point of the Majority’s argument is not properly before this Court.

. 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 4327(e)
(e) Other relevant factors. — After calculating educational costs and deducting grants and scholarships, the court may order either parent or both parents to pay all or part of the remaining educational costs of their child. The court shall consider all relevant factors which appear reasonable, equitable and necessary, including the following:
(1) The financial resources of both parents.
(2) The financial resources of the student.
(3) The receipt of educational loans and other financial assistance by the student.
(4) The ability, willingness and desire of the student to pursue and complete the course of study.
(5) Any wilful estrangement between the parent and student caused by the student after attaining majority.
(6) The ability of the student to contribute to the student's expenses through gainful employment. The student's history of employment is material under this paragraph.
(7) Any other relevant factors.

. R. Washburn, "Post-Majority Support: Oh Dad Poor Dad," 44 TEMPLE L.Q. 319, 329 n. 55 (1971).

. One national study reports that 40% of children are not visited by their non-custodial parents. Frank F. Furstenberg, S. Philip Morgan, and Paul D. Allison, “Paternal Participation and Children’s Well-Being After Marital Dissolution,” AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW 52 (1987): 695-701.