Hall v. Hall

Forsythe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant, Frederick Morton Hall, filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County against his wife, the appellee, Olga A. Hall, in which he prayed (1) for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, and (2) that certain property held by them as tenants by the entireties be decreed to be the absolute property of the appellant. On August 11, 1941, the court passed a decree granting the appellant a divorce a vinculo matrimonii from the appellee. There is no appeal from that decree.

Subsequently, on September 27, 1941, the court passed an order in which it denied the relief “as prayed for in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth” prayers of the bill of complaint. Those prayers had reference to the property held by the parties as tenants by the entireties. The bill of complaint alleges that the parties were married in 1920, and in 1927 the appellant purchased for property involved, partly with money inherited and partly with bonus money received from the United States Government. Also, a mortgage was placed on the property.

The title was taken in the names of the parties as tenants by the entireties. It is then alleged that about 1937 the appellee left the appellant, and now is living in Baltimore City as the wife of another man. It is not alleged in the bill of complaint that the appellee secured the joint title to the property by means of any fraud or undue influence. ³⁵⁵ The only question presented by this appeal is whether, in a case for divorce, a court of equity has the power to adjust the property rights of the parties. The general rule, usually followed, is that courts of equity, in cases for divorce, have no power, unless expressly conferred by