Albanese v. Richter, 9257.
| Decision Date | 21 May 1947 |
| Docket Number | No. 9257.,9257. |
| Citation | 161 F.2d 688 |
| Parties | ALBANESE v. RICHTER. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Isadore Glauberman, of Jersey City, N. J., for appellant.
Arthur T. Vanderbilt, of Newark, N. J. (Willard G. Woelper, of Newark, N. J., on the brief), for respondent.
Before O'CONNELL and KALODNER, Circuit Judges, and FOLLMER, District Judge.
This appeal poses the question whether an illegitimate child may proceed against his putative father, in a federal court, for invalidation of an instrument alleged to be a fraud on his rights and for the awarding of sums necessary for his education and support.
The allegations of the complaint are substantially as follows: Defendant and Barbara Mary Kelnhofer (hereinafter called Barbara), not married to one another, cohabited on numerous occasions between January, 1941, and January, 1944. As a result of that relationship, Barbara became pregnant in October, 1943. Because defendant threatened to cease supporting her, Barbara on February 18, 1944, executed in New York a formal instrument, under the terms of which she did "admit and covenant" that defendant was not the father of the expected child, and did accept $7500 in satisfaction of all claims "which I may now have, or hereafter claim or claim to have, against the said Hubert Richter, by reason particularly of my pregnancy, the birth of the expected child or for sic its support, education, and maintenance."
Plaintiff was born on July 20, 1944. He and Barbara are residents of New York; defendant is a resident of New Jersey. Plaintiff asks the court: (1) to declare null and void the instrument signed by Barbara on February 18, 1944; (2) to require defendant to contribute to his support and education, in accordance with Section 120 of the New York Domestic Relations Law, Consol.Laws, c. 14; and (3) to require defendant to contribute to his support and education, in accordance with Section 9: 16-2, Revised Statutes of New Jersey, N.J. S.A.
The court below granted defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint; D.C.1946, 67 F.Supp. 771. We reach the same conclusion.
Mere diversity of citizenship and jurisdictional amount, in and of themselves, are not sufficient to give jurisdiction to federal courts. 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(1), as interpreted by the courts, has been held consistently not to include suits primarily involving domestic relations. Fontain v. Ravenel, 1854, 17 How. 369, 58 U.S. 369, 15 L.Ed. 80; and see In re Burrus, 1890, 136 U.S. 586, 593, 10 S.Ct. 850, 34 L.Ed. 500, and Williams v. North Carolina, 1945, 325 U.S. 226, 233, 237, 65 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed. 1577, 157 A.L.R. 1366.
Plaintiff urges that "domestic relations"...
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DiRuggiero v. Rodgers
...exception bars federal diversity jurisdiction over a suit to enforce a father's support obligations. Albanese v. Richter, 161 F.2d 688, 689 (3d Cir.1947); see Solomon v. Solomon, 516 F.2d 1018, 1024-25 (3d The contemporary purpose of the domestic-relations exception rests on functional cons......
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Jackson v. United States National Bank, Portland, Ore.
...at pages 154-155 (divorce); Barry v. Mercein, 1847, 4 How. 103, 119-120, 46 U.S. 103, 119-120, 12 L.Ed. 70 (custody); Albanese v. Richter, 3 Cir., 161 F.2d 688, 689, certiorari denied 1947, 332 U.S. 782, 68 S.Ct. 49, 92 L.Ed. 365 (support). If then a right involving a decedent's estate is s......
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Spindel v. Spindel
...involving matrimonial status, but also any case concerned with "domestic relations," in the broad sense of the term. See Albanese v. Richter, 161 F.2d 688 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 332 U.S. 782, 68 S.Ct. 49, 92 L.Ed. 365 (1947) (suit by illegitimate child against putative father to invalidat......
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Wilkins v. Rogers, s. 77-1588
... ... E. g., Albanese ... v. Richter, 161 F.2d 688 (3rd Cir. 1947), Cert. denied 332 U.S. 782, 68 S.Ct. 49, 92 L.Ed. 365 ... ...