Commonwealth v. May

Citations

• 77 Pa. Super. 40
• 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 203

Syllabus

<p>Parent and child — Husband and wife — Maintenance — Act of April IS, 1867, P. L. 78 — Municipal court — Act of July 12,1918, P. L. 711 — Act of July 17,1917, P. L. 1016.</p> <p>By tbe Act of July 12, 1913, P. L. 711, as amended by tbe Act of July 17, 1917, P. L. 1015, the municipal court is given exclusive jurisdiction in all proceedings brought against any husband or father •wherein he has, without. reasonable cause, separated himself from his wife or children or from both, or has neglected to maintain his wife and children.</p> <p>On a petition for an order of support for the complainant, who is the wife of the defendant and their minor children, an order awarding the sum of $500 a month for the support of the petitioner and her children will be sustained, where there is evidence that a former order had been made by the municipal court on October 20, 1919, and the order appealed from was an application for an increase, due to the birth of a second child.</p> <p>The fact that the defendant did not question at the first proceeding by appeal or otherwise, his marriage with the petitioner, that they had one child, and the necessity for maintenance within the statute, conclusively established such facts. The appellant could not, on the application for an increase of the allowance, retry the fact of marriage determined before.</p> <p>An order requiring the defendant to pay the sum of $500 'a month will be sustained where there is evidence to support it. A consideration of 'the record by the appellate court under the Act of April 18, 1919, P. L. 72, does not require that court to reverse a conclusion of the lower court, where there was evidence to sustain the finding.</p>