Case ID: root_1/html/0262-03.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Somers v. Barkhempstead.
    Action of trespass on tbe case and not indebitatus assumpsit is tbe proper remedy where a pauper is illegally sent into a town.
    Error to reverse a judgment of the County Court-, in an action of assumpsit, brought by Somers against Barkhemp-stead for the support of one Jerusha Tudman a pauper.
    
      Plea in bar — That in A. D. 1779 Robert Tudman, a foreigner, married said Jerusha, who then belonged to Stafford; that he removed and lived in said Somers four years, during which time Billings, was his bondsman to said Somers; from thence he removed with his family to Bark-hempstead, on the 2d of June A. 1). 1788, and continued there to the 1st of June A. D. 1789, when he was removed by order of the selectmen of said town to Somers with said Jerusha and his family.
    Question was —• Whether as said Tudman was a foreigner, he could gain a settlement by comorancy.
   By the Court.

He could not. Judgment in the County Court was for the defendants. This judgment was affirmed by this court — upon the ground that the plaintiffs had misconceived their action; for if they were injured by the illegal removal of said "Tudman, etc. to their town, trespass and not assumpsit would have been the proper action, unless the paupers had been inhabitants of Barkhempstead.