Gechter v. Gechter

Robinson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The parties in this appeal were divorced a mema et thoro, by a decree of the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, passed in January, 1878, which decree was duly enrolled. At the following term, a petition was filed by the appellee, praying the Court to vacate the enrollment of the decree, on the ground of fraud and surprise, for leave to appear and answer the bill of complaint, and to enjoin the appellant from disposing of his property pending the litigation. The appellant in his answer denies under oath, all the allegations set forth in the petition, and prays that the same be dismissed, and the injunction granted upon it be dissolved. ' The petition alleges that on the 3rd of October, 1877, she left this country for Germany, with the consent of her husband, for the purpose of receiving a small legacy bequeathed to her by her father, that the day before her departure a person representing himself as a deputy sheriff, ¹⁸⁹ read to her a paper, which owing to her imperfect knowledge of the English language, she was unable to understand — that she asked her husband what it meant, and he told her that it did not amount to anything.

That after transacting her business in Germany, she returned to this country, and upon her arrival here, she was sirrprised to find that a divorce had been obtained by her husband during her absence, that she had no previous knowledge or intimation of any kind, that proceedings to that end had been instituted against her, and that she had always conducted herself in a proper and becoming manner as a wife, &c. The record shows that an interlocutory decree was passed for want'of an appearance on the part of the petitioner, and under it an