44 Pa. Super. 496 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1910
Opinion by
On an appeal from the final order of the quarter sessions in a case under the Act of April 13, 1867, P. L. 78, this court has no jurisdiction to review the merits of the case or the' discretion of the court below. We can only consider the regularity of the proceedings as shown by the record proper. This has been decided so often that
The assignments of error and the argument of the learned counsel for the appellant indicate that he overlooked the principles of law enunciated in the cases above cited. In the present case the complaint was made by the wife against the defendant, her husband, on May 5,1910, charging that he had refused to contribute to the support of his daughter, Lottie Edgar, aged about twelve years, and that she had no visible means of support. The defendant was arrested and held to answer at the next term of the court of quarter sessions and on May 28, 1910, at a session of said court in Allegheny county, a hearing was had on the complaint aforesaid by one of the judges of said court, and subsequently, on August 23, 1910, defendant was ordered to pay $3.50 per week and give bond with surety in the sum of $300, conditioned that he comply with this order, and the defendant gave this bond, and then appealed to this court. The record shows a regular and orderly hearing according to the statute giving jurisdiction to the court in this character of complaints. The act of 1867 is entitled, “An Act for the relief of wives and children deserted by their husbands and fathers within this commonwealth.” Approved April 13, 1867, P. L. 78. Assuming it to be necessary for the court below to find that the defendant had in the language of the act, “separated himself from his wife, or from his children, or from wife and children, without reasonable cause, or shall neglect to maintain his wife or children,” etc., we are bound to assume that the court below found the necessary facts in that respect because the evidence is not before us, and as we have seen we are not at liberty to review the facts. In the present
It is unnecessary to discuss the other assignments of error, because they would require us to review the evidence, the findings of fact and the discretion of the court below; this, as we have seen, the appeal, which is a substitute for a common-law certiorari, gives us no power to do.
No irregularity, error or want of jurisdiction appears in the record, and the order of the court below is affirmed at the costs of the appellant.