Blog

An interesting, and perhaps unanswered, question which may arise in a child support modification proceeding is, “Can the court award legal fees to the prevailing party?” Since 1997, there has been statutory authority for awarding legal fees in a child support case. Previously, no statutory authority existed. 23 Pa.C.S. 4351 authorizes an award of legal fees where “an obligee prevails in a proceeding to establish paternity or to obtain a support […]

A recent decision issued by Florida’s intermediate appellate court, Craissati v. Craissati, amply demonstrates the importance of good contract writing skill. The husband and wife in this case entered into a marital settlement agreement, in which the husband agreed to pay alimony for eight years. Like most alimony agreements, this agreement provided that the alimony would terminate upon the death of the recipient, her remarriage, or cohabitation for a period […]

 Pennsylvania has jurisdiction over its own citizens as well as those who have signficant contacts with our state. The law that extends Pennsylvania’s jurisdiction over non-citizens who have significant contacts is known as the “long-arm” statute (as in “long arm of the law”). Long-arm jurisdiction over non-residents in divorce actions is limited, as in all actions, by the due process requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which […]

In Shadle v. Shadle (108 PDDRR 102), a Bucks County divorce decision, the main issue was the valuation of an HVAC contracting business owned by the husband. The contracting business generated revenues from two primary sources: prepaid service contracts, and residential repair and replacement of HVAC systems. The company employed seven technicians, including the parties’ two adult sons. An ancillary issue was whether the husband had made an enforceable agreement […]

Chris Mercer’s Value Matters newsletter offered a succinct summary of the Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision in Jelke v. Com., an important decision dealing with built-in capital gains (BIG) tax liability of Subchapter C corporations. The subject company in the case was a C corporation established 80 years ago, whose principal asset was an investment portfolio managed for long-term capital growth. The company was valued for estate tax purposes, and the […]

This post is the second in a series dedicated to historical legal precedents on business valuation in Pennsylvania. The factual background for this case, Glosser Bros., is discussed in my post last week. This is part II: In addition to their argument that trial court should have considered actual stock transactions, the appellants in Glosser Bros. also complained about the expert testimony given by the dissenters’ accountant, who calculated the […]