223 Ga. 524 | Ga. | 1967
1. “While Code § 110-709 provides that 'The judgment of a court having no jurisdiction of the person
2. Where it appeared from the facts set forth in the plaintiff’s petition, the same being an equitable petition to set aside a divorce decree granted to the plaintiff’s husband, since deceased, that after his purported petition for divorce was filed as a cross action in a suit for alimony, the plaintiff and her husband (the deceased) entered into an agreement respecting alimony and on the same day resumed cohabitation as man and wife, but failed to inform the court of that fact; that she thereafter, while continuing to live with her husband, signed a consent that the case be tried “before the judge and without a jury as soon after the appearance date as may be convenient,” upon application of the principles set forth in the preceding headnote, even though the divorce decree may have been void, it affirmatively appeared from the petition that the plaintiff did not have clean hands so as to be entitled to invoke the aid of equity in securing relief from the aforesaid divorce decree, and a court of equity will, under these circumstances, leave the parties where it finds them and grant no relief to one who participated in obtaining the aforesaid fraudulently procured divorce decree.
3. Moreover, in order for a petition to state a cause of action for relief against the opposite party, it is essential that it affirmatively appear that to withhold the relief sought would result in damage to the complaining party or that the plaintiff has suffered or will suffer damages as a result
Judgment affirmed.