Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/186/186mass244.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:22:29+00:00

Document:
JAMES A. BAILEY, JR., trustee, vs. IDA S. DILLON.
Present: KNOWLTON, C.J., MORTON, LATHROP, BARKER, & BRALEY, JJ.
Husband and Wife. Contract, Validity. Equity Jurisdiction. Probate Court.
A fair and voluntary contract between a wife and a trustee in behalf of her husband, under which the husband places in the hands of the trustee a fund for the support of his wife and the wife agrees that she will not make any further claim on her husband for support, is not void as against public policy.
A trustee for a husband, under a fair and voluntary agreement by which the husband has placed a fund for the support of his wife in the hands of the trustee and the wife has agreed that she will not make any further claim on her husband for support, cannot maintain a bill in equity against the wife to enjoin her from proceeding with a petition for support in the Probate Court, as the husband has a complete and adequate remedy by setting up the contract in the Probate Court as a bar to the petition.
The Probate Courts have full equity powers in regard to petitions for separate support.
Where a husband is seeking to enforce in equity a fair and voluntary agreement of his wife to accept a fund placed in the hands of a trustee for her separate maintenance and not to make any further claim on him for support, what would be the effect of the proof of a bona fide offer to return on the part of the wife, qure.
BILL IN EQUITY, filed September 16, 1903, to enforce an agreement, under which the plaintiff was trustee for William Dillon, against Ida S. Dillon, the wife of William, by restraining the further prosecution by the defendant of a petition for support in the Probate Court for the county of Suffolk.
The defendant demurred to the bill. The case was heard by Braley, J., who made a decree that the demurrer be sustained, and, the plaintiff not desiring to amend his bill, that the bill be dismissed, without prejudice to the right of William Dillon to plead the subject matter of the bill in proceedings now pending in the Probate Court mentioned in the bill. The plaintiff appealed from the decree.
F.W. Kaan, for the plaintiff.
F.S. Hesseltine, for the defendant.
of the petition filed by the defendant in the Probate Court are annexed to the bill. The latter implies that a separation took place, and alleges, in substance, amongst other things, an offer to return. The bill does not set out the circumstances under which the agreement was entered into, or that a separation had taken place, or that the agreement was made in contemplation of an immediate separation, which took place and still continues, and it does not deny the allegation in the defendant's petition to the Probate Court of an offer to return. But, if such allegations are necessary in order to enable him to maintain it, the plaintiff, although an opportunity was given him to amend his bill and he did not do so, now desires an opportunity to amend the bill by alleging that the agreement was made in contemplation of an immediate separation, and that such separation took place and still continues, and by denying that there has been an offer to return. We assume that such amendments would be allowed, and therefore proceed to deal with the case as if the bill had been thus amended, though from the statement in the agreement that the defendant had left her husband without his consent, it might perhaps fairly be inferred that they were living separate and apart at the time when the agreement was entered into, and that the separation still continues.
and thirty-one of chapter one hundred and fifty-two shall apply to proceedings upon such petition, so far as appropriate." R.L.c. 153, § 35. Section 29, above referred to, provides in reference to matters of divorce that, "The Superior Court may, if the course of proceeding is not specially prescribed, hear and determine all matters coming within the purview of this chapter according to the course of proceeding in ecclesiastical courts or in courts of equity." According to this the probate courts have full equity powers in regard to petitions for separate support, and we think, therefore, that the plaintiff can avail himself of the agreement as fully and effectually in the proceedings in the Probate Court as he could in this, and that the remedy thus afforded is adequate and complete. In Silverman v. Silverman, 140 Mass. 560 , it was held that an agreement between the husband and the wife whereby she released him from all claim for her support was not a bar to a petition by her under Pub. Sts. c. 147, § 33. But this was on the ground that the contract having been entered into directly between the husband and wife was void. In the present case the agreement was between the wife and a trustee. In Sullings v. Richmond, ubi supra, it was held that an antenuptial contract did not operate as a bar to a claim by the widow in the Probate Court to a distributive share of her husband's estate. This was on the ground that the remedy of those claiming under the contract was in equity and the Probate Court had no power to enforce the contract,  an objection which, as we have seen, does not apply to proceedings instituted by the wife in the Probate Court for a separate support. It is plain that, notwithstanding the agreement is between the wife and the trustee, the plaintiff can avail himself of it in defence of the proceedings in the Probate Court. Alley v. Winn, 134 Mass. 77 . And if the agreement was understandingly entered into by her, and is free from fraud and coercion, and is fair and reasonable, and the parties are still living separate and apart, we do not see why it should not operate as a bar to the proceedings instituted by her in the Probate Court. See Squires v. Squires, 53 Vt. 208. What the effect of a bona fide offer to return on her part would be is not before us, and it is not necessary now to consider.

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