Howe v. Howe

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 193
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 43

Syllabus

<p>Divorce — Practice, G. P. — Dismissing exceptions to master's report without opinion.</p> <p>It is not good practice for the court of common pleas to dismiss exceptions to a master’s report in a suit for divorce, and confirm his findings without any discussion of the evidence, of the conclusions of fact, or of his application of the law to the facts as found by him.</p> <p>Divorce— Gruel and barbarous treatment — Desertion.</p> <p>The “ reasonable cause ” which justifies a wife’s desertion and abandonment of her husband must be such as would entitle her to a divorce, and that is defined by the statute itself to be such cruel and babarous treatment as endangers her life, or which offers such indignities to her person as to render her condition intolerable and life burdensome.</p> <p>The fact that a wife finally leaves the house of her husband on account of his treatment of her is a very strong supporting fact of her testimony as to the cruel and barbarous treatment to which she claims to have been subjected.</p> <p>If a husband’s conduct is so cruel towards his wife that she cannot live with him in safety to her health, or without peril to her life, and for such reason she leaves him and abandons his home, she does not thereby commit the crime of desertion. In such a case she does not leave her husband or his home in consequence of any wilfulness on ner part, but is compelled by the cruelty of her husband and against her own will so to do. The desertion in such a case is upon his part and not upon hers.</p> <p>On a libel for divorce by a wife for cruel and barbarous treatment, the libellant is entitled to a decree in her favor where the only inference to be drawn from the uncontradicted evidence is that the husband committed repeated acts of violence on the' libellant, which continued through a number of months and resulted in threats to take her life, which produced such a dread of further brutalities that she was obliged to leave his home.</p> <p>On a libel for