holding that a consent decree may be modified due to fraud, accident, or mistake
How later courts described this case
- holding that a consent decree may be modified due to fraud, accident, or mistake
- “The parties’ agreement that the original conveyance was invalid had absolutely no legal weight in any other proceeding, other than as proof that they did so agree and would therefore be bound as between themselves.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
ROBERTS, Judge,
concurring.
As this Court stated in Baehr Bros. v. Commonwealth, 487 Pa. 233, 237 , 409 A.2d 326, 328 (1979), “[t]he Realty Transfer Tax Act . .. imposes a tax on the recordation of any document which effects a transfer of an interest in land.” (Emphasis in original). Here, real estate was conveyed by *460 deed to appellants Anthony and Victoria Sabatine, the deed was recorded, the realty transfer tax was paid to the Commonwealth, and the Sabatines assumed ownership of the property. Although I agree completely with the result reached by the majority, I am of the view that no amount of subsequent evidence that the conveyance was “void ab initio ” could change the fact that the transfer tax was properly payable at the time the deed was presented for recordation. Where, as here, a party who has properly paid a realty transfer tax at the time of recordation wishes later to recoup the amount paid, his recourse, if any, lies not against the Commonwealth but in his contractual rights.