Commonwealth v. Smith

Opinion by

Keller, J.,

This record is in an anomalous condition. On October 20, 1934, Constance R. Smith made complaint before a justice of the peace charging her husband, Raymond A. Smith, with wilful desertion and wilful neglect to support her and their two minor children, Rose Marie, aged eleven years, and Theresa Ann, aged eight years. The complaint was drawn in the language of the Act of March 13, 1903, P. L. 26, making it a misdemeanor for a husband or father to desert and neglect to support his wife or children; and the Act of July 12, 1919, P. L. 939, which reenacted the Act of 1903,…