67 A.2d 603 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1949
Argued March 14, 1949. Relatrix has appealed from an order of the County Court of Allegheny County modifying a support order so as to make it apply only to a minor child of herself and respondent. The latter obtained a decree in divorce from relatrix in Alabama and then petitioned the court below to terminate the support order insofar as it applied to her.
Since it is well settled in this Commonwealth that a valid divorce decree terminates the duty of a husband to support his wife because of the severance of the marital relationship(Commonwealth ex rel. v. Parker,
Most of the facts are not in controversy. Appellee was born, reared, and educated in Alabama. His employment as a radio engineer has required him to reside temporarily in many states, including Pennsylvania, without, however, becoming a permanent resident of any state other than that of his original domicile. He married relatrix in Chevy Chase, Maryland, November 11, 1945; he was then stationed in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. Navy. He had been commissioned a naval officer two days after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), while living in Cedartown, Georgia, across the state line from Alabama. He had been employed there four months. Prior thereto he had been employed at various places in the South, and while in the service he was stationed at various places both within and without the United States. Following his discharge from the service, he joined his wife in Pittsburgh in August, 1946. She had moved there with her parents from their former home in Morgantown, West Virginia, in March of that year. Not being able to secure a satisfactory position in Pittsburgh, he went to Reading, Pennsylvania, where he had obtained employment in the Eastern Radio Corporation. He testified that his wife refused to take their child and join him there. Instead on November 16, 1946, she brought an action against him in Allegheny County for support for herself and child, and on December 9, 1946, the order in question was entered.
On August 22, 1947, appellee filed a complaint in divorce in the Circuit Court of Etowah County, Alabama, alleging desertion for the required statutory period, and on February 4, 1948, the divorce was granted. He swore that he was a resident of Gadsden, Alabama, and that his wife was a nonresident. She was served with notice by registered mail but did not appear in person or by counsel at any stage of the proceeding. *556
The decree is prima facie valid and the burden was on relatrix of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the Alabama Court lacked jurisdiction. Commonwealth ex rel. Cronhardt v.Cronhardt, supra; Commonwealth ex rel. Meth v. Meth,
It is conceded that the domicile of origin was established to be in Alabama and "A domicil once established continues until it is superseded by a new domicil": Restatement, Conflict of Laws, § 23; Commonwealth ex rel. Saunders v. Saunders,
Appellant urges upon us that in an issue concerning only the maintenance or support of a wife domiciled in Pennsylvania, we are not obliged to accord full faith and credit to a divorce decree of a sister state where there was neither personal service upon nor appearance by the wife. That would unquestionably be true if the wife were able to prove that the sister state had lacked jurisdiction because of the failure of the husband to establish a bona fide domicile in that state. She relies upon our recognition of a difference between the problem of marital capacity and the problem of maintenance and support inCommonwealth ex rel. Hoffman v. Hoffman,
Nor is this case ruled by Estin v. Estin,
The order is affirmed. *558