Stauch Estate

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Pomeroy,

The Commonwealth has appealed from a decree of the orphans’ court division of the court below holding *289that a criminal fine levied against the decedent in his lifetime abated at his death and therefore could not be recovered from his personal representative as a claim against the estate.

The decedent, Bussell Stauch, was found guilty in 1949 in the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Allegheny County1 of performing an unlawful abortion resulting in death. He was sentenced to five to ten years’ imprisonment and fined §6,000. Stauch died testate in 1955 having served his…