Court Opinion

ID: 9700900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:52:59.687383+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:15.815685
License: Public Domain

*118TAMILIA, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result. While I agree with the majority’s disposition, I take issue with its reliance on In re Donna W., 325 Pa.Super. 37, 472 A.2d 635 (1984) (broad scope of review in custody case as distinguished from abuse of discretion standard is essential if the appellate court is to fill its responsibility to children.) I believe the scope of review applied in Donna W. and its genre have been repudiated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Robinson v. Robinson, 505 Pa. 226, 478 A.2d 800 (1984) and Lombardo v. Lombardo, 515 Pa. 139, 527 A.2d 525 (1987). See Fatemi v. Fatemi, 339 Pa.Super. 590, 489 A.2d 798 (1985) (Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by Tamilia, J.).
I would also hold that snatching of his child, in derogation of a custody Order, is prohibited under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5341 et seq., and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1738A, and appellant is technically a fugitive. This is particularly so in view of the fact that by violating the conditions of the custody Order, appellant is subject to prosecution for violating 18 Pa.C.S. § 2904, Interference with Custody of Children. As such, he should have no right to appeal, as would be our finding in a criminal case.
To permit him to appeal and for the Court to consider the case on the merits is to give him a windfall. Under these circumstances, he need not abide by the law and face the court in an open and fair adversary proceeding while maintaining the benefit of a full appellate review, which might resolve some procedural defect in his favor relieving him of the sanctions imposed and ignoring his flouting of the law.
This is particularly of great concern to this Court as the issues relating to custody and partial custody were fully litigated in the trial court and in this Court on appeal. See Fatemi, supra. In the earlier proceeding, the mother had appealed a custody Order in favor of the father and for less restrictive partial custody. While the majority of the panel directed a lessening of the partial custody restrictions, the Order in favor of appellant prevailed. This was in spite of *119the fact that while the mother had custody, the father had taken the children to Iran from April 1980 to December 1980, without informing the mother. The children were returned only after the mother met with appellant in Switzerland and agreed to give him full custody with daily visitation rights to the mother in the father’s home. The appellant appears determined to be a law unto himself in regard to the custody of his children and should be dealt with accordingly.
I have no quarrel with the result achieved by the majority but believe the message would be stronger to appellant and his ilk that by child snatching and becoming a fugitive, they forfeit the benefits of the appellate procedure and have waived any right to appeal. A party, who absconds to a foreign country with children who are totally beyond the reach of American justice and who are impervious to diplomatic pressures, should not also have the succor of appellate review. Denying appeal fixes the judgment of the lower court and provides the only remedy available to the wronged person, that is a climate for negotiation whereby to gain relief from heavy sanctions and to regain the benefits of our society, he must repudiate his vicious and destructive self-help approach and accede to reasonable and acceptable standards of conduct.