Commonwealth Ex Rel. Carmack v. Carmack

In Hellman v. Hellman, 246 Pa.Super. 536, 371 A.2d 964 (1977), the majority held that a lower court abuses its discretion when in a support action it refuses to consider evidence that the supporting spouse is guilty of marital misconduct. I dissented, 246 Pa.Super. at 547, 371 A.2d at 969, but, since the Supreme Court refused allocatur, I accept the majority’s decision. One aspect of that decision, however, should be noted, for it is critical to deciding the present case.

In Heilman the majority claimed that it was not advocating that the lower court should “ ‘balance against each other [the…