71 Pa. Super. 382 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1919
Opinion by
The appellant filed her libel in the court below, praying for a decree of absolute divorce from her husband. In that libel she was obliged to aver as a jurisdictional fact, and accordingly did aver, that she had been a bona fide resident of the State of Pennsylvania, for the period of at least one year prior to the filing of the libel. In English v. English, 19 Pa. Superior Ct. 586, President Judge Rice said; “No matter how expressed, consent of
A master or examiner having been appointed, a considerable amount of testimony was taken. Much of it was directed to the question whether or not the libellant was a bona fide resident or citizen of the State of Pennsylvania for the period of a year before the filing of her petition. In a careful and elaborate analysis of the testimony on this subject, the master reached the conclusion that the evidence failed to establish the all-important fact upon which the plaintiff’s right to any relief depended. He accordingly recommended that a decree be refused because of the nonresidence of the libellant. Upon consideration of exceptions to this report, the learned court below reached the same conclusion and refused a decree and, this appeal followed.
It is agreed that the plaintiff was born in the State of Pennsylvania and continued to reside here until her marriage, at which date she was about thirty years of age. It is equally clear that upon her marriage, her husband being then a resident of the State of New York, and she having gone with him to that state where she lived and cohabited with him for. a number of years, she lost her domicile of origin and acquired a new domicile, to wit, that of her husband and thus became a resident of the State of New York. It was incumbent upon her, therefore, to establish by proof that she had abandoned that domicile and had again become a bona fide resident of the State of Pennsylvania for the necessary period of time before the filing of her libel. We have read the testimony with care and we are compelled to say that it produces in our minds the same conviction that it created
We may add, that we could not with propriety reverse a decree, in essence and substance correct, because of an incorrect statement of the law made by the learned court
Tbe assignments of error are overruled.
Tbe decree is affirmed.