267 Pa. 129 | Pa. | 1920
Opinion by
In November, 1914, Milly I. Speer made a complaint in Indiana County against her husband, the appellant, charging him with desertion and nonsupport from July of that year. In the following December the court of quarter sessions of the county found him guilty of desertion and made an order upon him for the support of his wife. He failed to comply with this order after October, 1915, and in December, 1916, she presented her petition to the court, asking that he be compelled by attachment to pay her the arrearages due. In September of the following year, after a hearing, the court modified the order for the period from October 1, 1915, to October 11, 1916, and revoked it as of that date, on the ground that he had then been divorced from his wife. On August 22, 1918, she filed an information in the County Court of Allegheny County, charging the same desertion she had charged in her complaint made in Indiana County. In bar of this second prosecution the appellant offered the entire record of the proceedings which had been instituted against him in the Court of Quarter Sessions of Indiana County but the court below held that this prior prosecution was no bar to that proceeding before it, and, having adjudged him guilty of desertion, made the order of support from which we have this appeal.
It is urged that appellant should have appealed, in the first instance, to the court of common pleas of the county, the contention of the appellee being that it is
After October 1,1915, as already stated, the appellant failed to comply with the order of maintenance made by the Court of Quarter Sessions of Indiana County, and on December 19, 1916, Milly I. Speer presented her petition to that court, asking for process to compel him to pay what was due her. In his answer to the rule to show cause why the prayer of the petitioner should not be granted, he averred that he was no longer her husband, having been absolutely divorced from her on October 11,1916, by decree of the Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, in and for the County of Washoe. In connection with this answer there was exhibited to the court a certified copy of the decree of divorce and of all proceedings leading up to it. In her replication the petitioner, for reasons therein set forth, averred that the decree was null and void. After hearing, on petition, answer, replication and evidence submitted to it, the court, in an elaborate opinion filed September 9, 1917, found that the decree of the Nevada court divorcing the appellant from his wife was valid, and that full effect must be given to it. The order of support was thereupon revoked. Though an exception was filed to this, no ap
The court of Indiana County was the proper tribunal to pass upon the complaint made by the wife of the appellant in 1914 for his failure to support her. It was a court of record, having jurisdiction of such complaints. Before it could make an order of maintenance it was upon the complainant to show that she.was the wife of the defendant, and she did so show. After the order of support had been made, it continued under the control of the court that made it, to be revoked whenever the defendant was no longer the husband of the complainant. When he had been in default for months, she asked that he be compelled to comply with the order, and thereupon an issue arose in the court Avhich had made the order, requiring it to determine whether the marriage relation still continued between the parties. This was a question vital to the right of the complainant to further support. On this issue, to which she made herself a party, it was adjudged, after due hearing, that she was no longer the wife of the appellant, and a decree so holding became part of the records of the court, binding upon every court in the Commonwealth having jurisdiction of desertion proceedings, in any attempt which she might make to compel the appellant to support her. When a court of competent jurisdiction passes upon a question
The assignments of error are sustained, the order of the court below is reversed and the appellant discharged from his recognizance.