Court Opinion

ID: 9718044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:15:48.221123+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:57.037452
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Cohen :
The first section of the Act of 1907 establishes in the courts of equity jurisdiction in actions for nonsupport. The 1955 Amendment provided: “. . . [the] action may be brought at law or at equity . . . and the said court shall have power to entertain a bill in equity in such action. . . .” Thus the act gives to the court full equitable power, and does not limit the parties defendant to only the husband as the majority does in contravention of both the act and our decided cases. Erdner v. Erdner, 234 Pa. 500, 83 Atl. 420 (1912), is improperly relied upon by the majority. There it was held that the property of the husband could not be sold 'before it was determined what support was due. It did not hold that the holders of the husband’s property could not be joined.
The most violence to orderly legal procedure however results from the majority’s dismissal of the action against defendants who have not appealed. The action of the court below that retained them as parties defendants is unappealed from and up to now we have always refused to adjudicate rights of litigants who have not appealed. I dissent.
Mr. Justice Musmanno joins in this dissenting opinion.