Opinion
March 21, 1961.
March 22, 1961.
Appeals — Jurisdiction — Superior Court — Adoption orders — Municipal Court of Philadelphia — Acts of March 2, 1923, P.L. 3 and April 4, 1925, P.L. 127.
1. The Superior Court does not have jurisdiction of appeals from adoption orders in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia.
2. Such jurisdiction is not conferred upon the Superior Court by the Act of March 2, 1923, P.L. 3.
3. The Act of April 4, 1925, P.L. 127, as amended (which provides for adoption) does not give the right of appeal, and an appeal in an adoption proceeding is in the nature of a certiorari.
Before RHODES, P.J., ERVIN, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, WATKINS, MONTGOMERY, and FLOOD, JJ.
Appeal, No. 43, Oct. T., 1961, from order of Municipal Court of Philadelphia County, Dec. T., 1959, No. 803-C, in re adoption of Augustus Hicks, III. Appeal certified to Supreme Court.
Proceeding upon petition of maternal grandparents for adoption of minor child. Before BROWN, J.
Order entered granting petition for adoption. Father of child appealed to Superior Court.
Stanford Shmukler, with him Harry P. Voldow, for appellant.
E. Washington Rhodes, with him Charles Wright, for appellees.
Argued March 21, 1961.
This is an appeal from an order of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia in an adoption case. The statute providing for adoption does not give the right of appeal. See Act of April 4, 1925, P.L. 127, as amended, 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1 et seq. An appeal in an adoption proceeding is in the nature of a certiorari. Maisels Adoption Case, 395 Pa. 329, 332, 149 A.2d 38 (1959). Under these circumstances, the Act of March 2, 1923, P.L. 3, 17 Pa.C.S.A. § 187, giving this Court jurisdiction of appeals from the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, does not give us jurisdiction of appeals from adoption orders in the Municipal Court. Bell Appeal, 396 Pa. 592, 152 A.2d 731 (1959).
The appeal is therefore certified to the Supreme Court.