225 Pa. 243 | Pa. | 1909
Opinion by
The Keystone Coal Company, on April 15, 1891, executed a. mortgage to Thomas Ford, trustee, to secure the issue of 124 bonds of $1,000 each. He died November 25, 1901, and on December 5, 1907, a petition, based on the Act of June 14, 1836, P. L. 628, and addressed to the court of common pleas of Luzerne' county was presented to one of the judges at chambers, who granted a rule to show cause why the prayer should not be granted, returnable to the next argument court. The appellant promptly raised the question of the court’s jurisdiction, averring in her answer to the rule to show cause that under the Act of June 16, 1836, P. L. 784, and its supplements, exclusive jurisdiction of the subject-matter in the petition was vested in the court sitting as a court of chancery. In the opinion of the court sustaining the petition the learned judge, speaking for it, said: “We are of the opinion that the proper procedure in this case would have been by bill according to the practice in equity. The act of June 16, 1836, which became law after the act of June 14,1836, aforesaid, vests in the court of common pleas the powers of a court of chancery, among other things, so far as relates to the appointment of trustees, and the practice provided for the exercise of this chancery jurisdiction is distinctly different from that pursued in the present proceeding. Inasmuch, however, as the judge to whom the petition was presented assumed jurisdiction and the case has been fully heard in the proper court although not on the right side of that court, and no harm can possibly result to any person concerned by a determination in this proceeding, we have concluded to hold jurisdiction as assumed at the beginning and make a disposition of the case upon the merits,