Commonwealth v. Shecter

Citations

• 250 Pa. 282
• 95 A. 468
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 937

Syllabus

<p>Courts — Desertion, proceedings — Enforcement of order — Contempt — Order of another court — Municipal Court of Philadelphia —Act of July 12,1918, P. L. 711.</p> <p>1. So separate and distinct are courts in Pennsylvania, and so independent of each other, that even a Court of Common Pleas can only lend its process to enforce a judgment of another court of equal rank, as it is expressly authorized by law to do so.</p> <p>2. The Act of July 12, 1913, P. L. 711, creating a Municipal Court for Philadelphia County, and conferring upon that court exclusive jurisdiction “in all proceedings, brought against any husband or father, wherein it is charged that he has without reasonable cause separated himself from his wife or children, etc.,” does not confer jurisdiction upon the Municipal Court to enforce by attachment, or other proceedings, in such a matter, an order made by the .Court of Quarter Sessions prior to the creation of the Municipal Court, and the order of the Municipal Court, committing a husband until he should comply with an order of the Quarter Sessions Court to pay a specified sum for the support of his wife, was reversed.</p> <p>3. It is a reasonable inference from the terms of the Act of July 12,1913, P. L. 711, that the exclusive jurisdiction of the Municipal Court was intended to relate solely to original proceedings, instituted therein after the date of the act, leaving the Quarter Sessions Court undisturbed as- to its rightful jurisdiction.</p>