Seltmann v. Seltmann

• Decision Date: 30 April 1948
• Parties: DORIS E. SELTMANN v. WALTER F. SELTMANN.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

322 Mass. 650

79 N.E.2d 11

DORIS E. SELTMANN v. WALTER F. SELTMANN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Plymouth.

April 30, 1948

April 5, 6, 1948.

Present: QUA, C.

J., DOLAN, RONAN WILKINS, & SPALDING, JJ.

Probate Court Jurisdiction, Equity proceeding. Marriage and Divorce Foreign divorce, Alimony, Support of child.

General Laws (Ter Ed.) c. 215, Section 6, as amended by St. 1933, c. 237, did not confer upon a Probate Court jurisdiction of a petition in equity by a woman, divorced in another State, against her former husband, a resident of this Commonwealth, to enforce in accordance with its terms provisions of the foreign decree of divorce requiring payments by the respondent for support of the petitioner and of a minor child.

PETITION IN EQUITY, filed in the Probate Court for the county of Plymouth on December 23, 1946.

The case was heard by Stone, J.

F. D. Branca, for the respondent.

S.

Fishman, (J.

S. Aronson with him,) for the petitioner.

DOLAN, J. The allegations of the petition in this case, which was filed in the Probate Court, are in substance as follows. The petitioner is a resident of Rutherford in the State of New Jersey. The respondent (as appears in his answer and found by the master) is a resident of Whitman in this Commonwealth. The parties had been man and wife but were divorced by a decree entered March 10, 1939, in the Superior Court of Fulton County in the State of Georgia. By the terms of that decree the respondent, in accordance with an agreement of the parties approved by the court, was ordered to pay the sum of $60 a month for the support of a minor child, and $40 a month for the support of the petitioner, payments to begin on April 1, 1939. The respondent has failed to comply with these orders for support, and is in arrears "for an amount in excess of four thousand dollars . . . plus interest." The material prayers of the petition are that the order of the Georgia court be enforced and the respondent ordered to support the petitioner and their minor child in accordance with the terms of the said Georgia decree, that the amount in arrears be ascertained, that an appropriate order be made to compel payment of said arrearage together with interest thereon, and for such other and further relief as seems fit. In his answer the respondent denied the allegations of the petition, and set up that, if it should be found that a decree of divorce had been granted as alleged, he has since remarried, his financial and physical condition has changed the minor child before referred to is living with her maternal grandmother, the petitioner is gainfully employed and no longer dependent upon alimony for her support, the object of the orders for payment of alimony has ceased, and he "is absolved from the further payment of any portion of said alimony remaining unpaid."

The case was referred to a master who reported thereon, finding in substance the facts as to the entry and terms of the decree of divorce relied upon by the petitioner, and that certain payments had been made by the respondent in accordance with the terms of the agreement which had been made a part of the decree of divorce, but that he was in arrears and there was due to the petitioner the sum of $3,120 for her support from May 1, 1940, through October 31, 1946, and the sum of $874.68 for the support of the minor daughter for the years 1941 to 1945, inclusive, with interest upon each of said sums. In view of the result we reach hereinafter, other findings concerning the needs of the petitioner and the minor child and the financial condition of the petitioner and of the respondent need not be recited. The report of the master was filed on March 19, 1947. On April 17, 1947, the respondent filed a motion that the petition be dismissed for the reason that the Probate Court was without jurisdiction of the subject matter. After hearing the motion was denied by the judge on May 26, 1947. On June 3, 1947, the judge entered a final decree adjudging in substance that there was due to the petitioner for her support and that of the minor child the sums found due by the master, together with interest totaling $869.40, and ordering the respondent to pay said sums and the interest forthwith to the petitioner. The judge further decreed that the respondent pay forthwith the sum of $1,500 to counsel for the petitioner as costs and expenses. The respondent's appeal from the interlocutory decree denying his motion to dismiss and his appeal from the final decree entered by the judge bring the case before us.

In support of her contention that the Probate Court had jurisdiction to entertain and adjudicate the present petition, the petitioner relies upon the provisions of G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 215 Section 6, as amended by St. 1933, c. 237, which so far as here pertinent provides that the Probate Courts "shall also have jurisdiction in equity to enforce foreign judgments for support of a wife or of a wife and minor children against a husband who is a resident or inhabitant of this commonwealth, upon petition of the wife filed in the county...