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to declare the company bankrupt in 1989. He lost his
entire investment and the 1982 refund.
During their entire marriage, Ernest took exclu-
sive charge of all financial matters, giving Helen
money weekly for groceries and household necessities.
While she at times wrote checks for groceries, family
clothing, and household necessities, the monthly bank
account statements were maintained and reviewed solely
by Ernest. Helen was engrossed during these years as a
post-graduate student, a homemaker and mother. Her
time was fully consumed by raising her children, main-
taining the household and performing scientific re-
search work as an immunologist, first at New York Uni-
versity from 1976 through 1986, and then at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania from 1986 through the present.
She never studied business or accounting.
While Helen was aware that income tax returns had
to be prepared and filed each year, her only role was
to provide Ernest with a copy of her W-2 form during
those years in which she worked. On the other hand,
Ernest was an engineer with business skills, who held a
very responsible executive/management position. Fi-
nances were always an area of interest to him. He
regarded the management of family financial affairs as
his sole responsibility. He undertook to engage the
services of a highly reputable accountant in 1966, an
accountant who was providing services to his employer
and to other management personnel at Halcon during
those years.
Just as she did during all the years of their
marriage, Helen followed the instruction and direction
of her husband to simply sign the 1982 tax return once
it had been prepared by their accountant and presented
to her for signing. During forty-five years of what
could only be described as a wonderful, trusting mar-
riage relationship, Ernest Korchak perceived his role
as having sole responsibility for the financial affairs
of the family.
During the tax year in question, 1982, Helen
Korchak was completely consumed by her responsibilities
as a mother of three children, then ages 17, 15, and
13, as a homemaker, and by her passionate interest in
her medical research in the field of immunology. As an
engineer and corporate executive/businessman, Ernest
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