191 A. 187 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1937
Argued March 12, 1937. This is an appeal by Frieda T. Stull from an order of the court of common pleas discharging a rule to show cause why her former husband, Paul H. Stull, should not be adjudged in contempt of court and a writ of attachment issued against him for his failure to comply with a decree for the payment of money entered in a suit in equity brought in said court to enforce the provisions of a separation agreement between them.
The court felt its action was controlled by the case of Colburnv. Colburn,
We agree with the court below that the present case is ruled by that decision.
Appellant seeks to distinguish this case from the Colburn decision, pointing out that in that case the parties, at the time of suit, were still married, while in the present case the appellant, three months and four days after the date of the separation agreement, secured a decree of absolute divorce from the defendant. This difference in the facts does not help the appellant. While a man is under an obligation to support his wife as long as they are married, no such duty rests on him after they are divorced. The defendant's present obligation to pay appellant money for her support, after her decree of divorce, rests solely on the contract to do so contained in the agreement of separation, and the decree of court enforcing it; and the agreement *258
sought to be enforced in the suit in equity related to nothing but the payment of money. The agreement did not constitute the husband a trustee whose failure to pay amounted to a breach of trust, punishable by attachment in proceedings for contempt:Colburn v. Colburn, supra, pp. 251, 252. The covenants in such an agreement "are to be disposed of as contractual covenants without regard to their sentimental source and are to be enforced and defended against as any other [contractual] covenant": Shimp v.Gray,
Without entering further into the facts of the case there can be no question that the bill in equity filed by the appellant in this case was a bill for the enforcement of a contract for the payment of money and nothing more; and that the decree of the court entered in said suit was for the payment of money alone. An unbroken line of authorities, since the Act of 1842, supra, holds that such a decree will not be enforced by attachment of the person, as for contempt of court, in failing or refusing to make payment pursuant to the decree: Colburn v. Colburn, supra, p. 251; Pierce's App.,
The assignments of error are overruled and the order appealed from is affirmed at the costs of the appellant.