Comment Error- get avatar

<li class="<?php if( $comment->user_id == $post->post_author){echo 'mine';} else { echo $oddcomment; } ?>">
		 <div class="commauthor">
			<h2><a class="num" href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title="<?php _e('link to this comment','mtsjourney'); ?>"><?php echo $commentcounter; ?></a>
		<?php if( function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar( $comment, 45 );}?><br /><a title="<?php comment_author(); ?>" href="<?php comment_author_url(); ?>"><?php comment_author(); ?></a></h2>
		<p class="commetadata"><?php edit_comment_link('E','',''); ?><?php printf(__('%1$s at %2$s', 'mtsjourney'), get_comment_date(__('l, F jS, Y','mtsjourney')), get_comment_time()); ?>	</p>
					   </div><div class="commtext">
			<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>

This is the code i currently have on my comments.php. Can someone tell me how to edit my code so that i can get my comments to display properly? I keep getting a funny display in my comment section with the code text diplayed:

1 < ?php if( function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar( $comment, 45 );}?>
UserWhoLeftComment

I just want my comments displayed without seeing any funny code. Any and all help is appreciated. P.S. I have no intention of upgrading from my current version of 2.3, since everything works fine except for that. Thanks