Court Opinion

ID: 9644733
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:03:13.352077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:17.288361
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Bell:
I agree Avith the reversal and Avith much that is said in the Opinion of the Court, but I would go much further. It is unrealistic and ridiculous to continue to hold that, in the absence of fraud, a sheriff’s return *482is conclusive as between the parties. The majority concedes that the effect and result of this rule will often produce injustice and create a very large liability on the part of a defendant who in actuality was never served, but was falsely or erroneously reported to have been served with the challenged paper. It is also a matter of common knowledge that a suit against a sheriff for damages resulting from a false return would often fail to provide an adequate remedy. In attempting to remedy this situation which is fraught with possible hardship and gross injustice, we are confronted, inter alia, with two lines of cases which present an irreconcilable conflict. See: Vaughn v. Love, 324 Pa. 276, 188 A. 299, infra.
Findings of fact by a Judge without a jury, and findings of fact by a Chancellor, and special findings of a jury, are not conclusive; the testimony of lay and expert witnesses to a will or a deed is not conclusive; the actions, orders and resolutions of an administrative body and the Acts and Resolutions of a Legislature, and of Congress, and the acts, orders and decisions of a Mayor, a Governor, and even of the President of the United States (Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579), are not conclusive or sacrosanct. All of these can be and often are questioned, challenged, reviewed and overruled or reversed or changed by a Court. Indeed, the carefully considered judgment, order, decision or decree of the highest Court of every State in the Land is not conclusive, but is subject to challenge, review and reversal or modification by the Supreme Court of the United States. Moreover, a decision or order or decree of a lower Court or of an administrative body which a Legislative Act provides “shall be final and conclusive and no appeal will lie therefrom”, is nevertheless appealable and reviewable and reversible by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on certiorari.
*483When the findings and/or the acts, orders, decrees and decisions of the highest Legislative bodies and the highest Public Officials in our Country and the orders and judgments of the highest Court in each State can be challenged, reviewed and set aside, is it not anomalous and ridiculous to hold that the return of a sheriff or deputy sheriff — whose responsibility, reliability and (generally speaking) competence and intelligence, are apt to be of a far lower order than that of a Congressman, or a Judge, or a Governor, or the President of the United States, all of whom are higher in the Governmental scale — is conclusive and unchallengeable and unchangeable except for fraud!
Furthermore, prior decisions of this Court holding that the return of a sheriff (or a deputy sheriff) is absolutely conclusive between the parties* — in the absence of fraud- — (1) are in conflict inter se; and (2) are irreconcilable with prior decisions of this Court which hold that a lower Court has a discretionary power to open a judgment** (usually a default judgment) where the basis for the opening of a judgment is a false or erroneous or incomplete sheriff’s return.
In Vaughn v. Love, 324 Pa., supra (pages 279, 280), the Court first said that in the absence of fraud, a sheriff’s return was conclusive but then held it was not conclusive if the defendant was a nonresident of Pennsylvania. The Court further said: “The early history of the rule [conclusiveness of a sheriff’s return] is clouded by contradictions. Because of its strictness, all but eight states, of which Pennsylvania is one, have thrown off the old idea that the return of a sheriff must be accepted as verity . . . and occasionally we *484have been somewhat inconsistent in our rulings relating to the return and the immutability of a record.” Cf. also: Minetola v. Samacicio, 399 Pa. 351, 160 A. 2d 546; Bujniewicz v. Norway Service Cleaners, Inc., 404 Pa. 328, 171 A. 2d 761; and especially the rationale of those cases; also, Park Brothers & Co. v. Oil City B.W., 204 Pa. 453, 54 A. 334, and Payne v. East Liberty Spear Co., 132 Pa. Superior Ct. 278, 200 A. 924, which held that a sheriff’s return was not conclusive if it was not full or explicit.
We should apply our knowledge and common sense to this practical situation and have the courage and wisdom to recognize and admit that the unchallengeable conclusiveness of the return of the sheriff or deputy sheriff at times makes a mockery of justice, and we should abolish prospectively that rule. A sheriff’s return should be no more conclusive or sacrosanct, indeed it should be far less conclusive, than the findings and acts of any of the highest Public Officials in the situations hereinabove mentioned.
For each and all of these reasons I would reverse the Order of the lower Court and I would lay down the rule prospectively* that in the absence of fraud, the return of a sheriff is prima facie evidence of the facts which are set forth in and by the return, but *485can be overcome by evidence which is clear and convincing.

See: Miller Paper Co. v. Keystone C. & C. Co., 267 Pa. 180, 110 A. 79.

 The instant case arose on preliminary objections; depositions were thereafter taken in an attempt to avoid a sheriff’s return because of its falsity.

 For those few who, like the writer, are concerned about the preservation of the principle of Stare Decisis, I point out that this proposed prospective rule is not a violation or a weakening of that principle. It falls within each of three exceptions to that principle: (1) Where a rule has been often questioned and fluctuatingly applied; (2) where the prior decisions are irreconcilable; and (3) where it has created injustice, and no one’s personal rights or vested property interests will be injured by the change. For a detailed discussion and exposition of the principle of Stare Decisis and its exceptions, see my Concurring Opinion in Michael v. Hahnemann Medical College & Hospital, 404 Pa. 424, 172 A. 2d 769, and my Dissenting Opinion in Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation v. White Cross Stores, Inc., 414 Pa. 95, 199 A. 2d 266.