12 Pa. 328 | Pa. | 1849
Jan. 8.
The case which most distinctly recognises the power of a spiritual Court to vacate its sentence when obtained by imposition, is Prudham v. Phillips, stated in Meadows v. The Dutchess of Kingston, Amb. 763, and rather more fully in 1 Harg. Tracts, 456, note. It was tried before Chief Justice Willes in 1737; and, though a Nisi Prius decision, it was quoted with approbation by Lord Apsley. To show, by analogy, that the sen
It may seem an arbitrary act to expunge a sentence of divorce with a stroke of the pen, bastardize after-begotten children, involve an innocent third person in legal guilt, and destroy rights acquired in reliance on a judicial act, which was operative at the time: and under this-first impression, I would have decided as did the judge at Nisi Prius. But the legitimate husband also has rights; and if any one must suffer from the invalid marriage, it is he who procured it. By the terms of the contract, he took the lady for better for worse; and having assumed at least her moral responsibilities, he stands as to hardship in her place. He, therefore, has no right to complain. The children, who are the fruit of the connexion, are the only persons who have it, if indeed to have been brought into the world in any circumstances, can give such a right; but their condition is not worse than that of the dishonoured husband. There is no injustice, therefore, in a proper exercise of the power assumed in this instance; and the apparent danger of excess in the use of it, vanishes when it is viewed in connexion with a principle, which requires the record to exhibit the ground of every judgment. Possibly there may have been no sufficient ground exhibited in this case; but even if there were not, the order to vacate would be only erroneous, and unimpeachable after the expiration of the period for reversing it by appeal. In stating, however, the charge of imposition, without the facts and circumstances to sustain it, the Court has perhaps stated enough to justify their action upon it. Confidence must be reposed in the wisdom and justice of the tribunals ; and hence the maxim, that all things are presumed to have been rightfully done in Courts of record. • The endorser of the note in suit before us, had no property in it; and the plaintiff has no title.
Judgment for plaintiff reversed, and judgment rendered for defendant.