Case ID: walker_4/html/0394-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LOCK HAVEN vs. CLINTON COUNTY.
    Where a county paid for the maintenance of a lunatic at the State Hospital, it can recover from the poor district properly chargeable with such lunatic, the amount paid, together with interest accrued prior to the adjudication of the settlement.
    No. 345, January Term, 1884. Error to Common Pleas of Clinton County.
    On February 21st, 1874, Bridget Gallagher was adjudged insane and sent to the asylum at Danville. The County of Clinton had been charged with and paid her maintenance. On August 3, 1880, a rule was taken upon the City of Lock Haven to show cause why the Poor District of the city should not be certified as the place of Bridget Gallagher’s last settlement. On June 25, 1881, the rule was made absolute. On July 16, 1881, the County of Clinton brought suit against the City of Lock Haven to recover the amount paid by said county for Bridget Gallagher’s maintenance at the insane asylum. The city objected to so much of the claim as accrued more than six years prior to July 16, 1881-; and second, to any interest prior to the adjudication on June 25, 1881. The Court sustained the first objection, but overruled the second. A judgment was entered against the city, which, thereupon, took this writ of error, complaining of the allowance of the claim for interest.
    
      H. T. Harvey, Esq., for plaintiff in error,
    argued that no right of action accrued prior to June 25, 1881, and hence no-interest could be charged; and cited: Danville Poor District vs. Montour, 75 Penna., 35; Blewitt’s Case, 11 Phila., 652; Noblit vs. Briggs, 8 Phila., 275; Minard vs. Beans, 64 Pa., 411: Kelsey vs. Murphy, 30 Pa., 340.
    
      T. C. Hipple, Esq., Contra, cited:
    Act April 14, 1845, P-Laws, 440; Lower Augusta Township vs. Northumberland, 37 Penna., 143; Act April 8, 1861, P. Laws, 248; Directors vs. Murray, 32 Penna., 178; Directors vs. Worthington, 38 Penna., 160; Danville Poor District vs. Montour, 75 Penna., 35; Hogg vs. Longstreth, 97 Pa., 256.
   The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Common Pleas on May 26, 1884, in the following opinion:

Per Curiam.

The action of the Court of Quarter Sessions certifying the City of Lock Haven as the place of the insane pauper’s last settlement, fixed conclusively the liability of that poor district for her maintenance; Danville Poor District vs. Montour, 75 Pa., 35. That liability did not date merely from the time of the decree of the Court, but from the time when the pauper became a public charge, and this is, in effect, admitted, for no objection was made to charges previous to that date except so far as they were barred by the Statute of Limitations. But if this be so, on what principle can the plaintiff’s claim for interest be disallowed? If Clinton County, by force of the Hospital Act, April 14, 1845, P- Laws, 440, paid bills for which the City of Lock Haven was liable, the latter certainly became a debtor to the former for the amount so paid, and it is impossible for us to comprehend what there is in a debt, such as this, which exempts it from an incident common to all other debts.

The judgment is affirmed.