Schomaker v. Schomaker

Citations

• 247 Pa. 444
• 93 A. 460
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 860

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Equity jurisdiction — Husband and wife — Suit to recover separate property — Equity practice — Gross-bill—Demurrer— Testimony — Proof of fact of desertion.</p> <p>1. Even before the Act of March 27, 1913, P. L. 14, married persons might sue one another in equity to protect and gain possession of their separate property, and this notwithstanding the provision of Section 3 of the Act of June 8,1893, P. L. 344.</p> <p>2. While a cross-bill in equity may properly introduce new facts and issues, they must relate to the subject matter of the original bill and must be so closely connected therewith as to constitute the cross-bill a mere auxiliary of the original or & dependency thereon; questions which are entirely distinct from those presented in the original bill cannot be introduced by a cross-bill, although such questions be connected with the subject matter of the original bill.</p> <p>8. In a proceeding in equity by a husband against his wife to compel the latter to permit him to remove certain goods which he claimed .as his own from their common domicile, which belonged to the defendant, from which he desired to move to a house of his own, to which his wife had declined an invitation to accompany him, an answer was filed in which defendant alleged ownership of the property in herself by gift from the plaintiff, and also cruel and barbarous treatment, and the husband’s failure to perform certain agreements with her. Subsequently the defendant filed a cross-bill in which she asked that a decree be made against the plaintiff for the enforcement of his alleged undertakings. A demurrer to the cross-bill was sustained and after trial upon the original bill the court found upon sufficient evidence that there was no gift of the property in question to the wife, and entered a decree awarding its possession to the husband. Held, that equity had jurisdiction of the case and that the cross-bill was properly dismissed.</p> <p>4. In such case, testimony on behalf of t