Case ID: ky_111/html/0636-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "JUDGE BURNAM", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

'Case 65 — Action to Recover for Board and Medical Attention—
    Sep. 27.
    Board of Directors of Mason County Infirmary v. Smith’s Committee.
    APPEAL FROM MASON CIRCUIT COURT.
    .Judgment for Defendant and Plaintiff Appeals.
    Affirmed.
    Paupers — Acquisition of Estate After Entering County Infirmary —Recovery for Support.
    Held: Under an act authorizing the directors of a county infirmary, as soon as any person is admitted to such infirmary as a pauper, ■to take possession of any property he may own, and apply the proceeds of same to his maintenance, the directors are not authorized to apply property acquired by a pauper after he enters •the infirmary to the .payment of his hoard for the time prior •to the acquisition of such estate.
    FRANK P. O’DONNELL, for appellant..
    Dina Smith, a helpless negress, broken down by the infirmity of years, without funds or friends, and incapable mentally of knowing her own needs, became an inmate of the Mason county infirmary, and was kept there some .twelve or fifteen years; receiving kind treatment, clothing, lodging, nursing and medical attention.
    Just prior to the bringing of this suit she received a pension from the U. S. Government, amounting, with back pay, to $670. The pleadings show that within five years prior to the bringing of this suit her board, lodging, clothing and medical attention was reasonably worth $2 per week, amounting to $504 for the five years, which was all due .and unpaid. The appellant is ,a corporation and sues in its corporate name.
    A demurrer was sustained to the appellant’s petition, and the sole question is: Do the pleadings state a cause of action? We claim that a cause of action is stated, and if it is stated, though indefinitely, and on the wrong side of the docket, a demurrer could not reach the supposed defects.
    AUTHORITIES CITED.
    Ky. Civil Code, sec. 119; City of Covington v. Hoadley, 83 Ky> 446; Central Kentucky Asylum v. Penick, 44 S. W., 92; Kentucky Statutes, sec. 256; Miller’s Exr. v. Jolly, 5 Ky. Law Rep., 327; Nicholas v. Sinnett, 89 Ky., 630; Civil Code, sec. 95, suh-sec. 2; Coleman v. Comrs. Lunatic Asylum, 6 B. M., 241; Act General Assembly, 1873-4, page 190; Muir v L. & P. Canal Co., 8 Dana, 161; 7 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 2d ed.) 755; Century Dictionary & Ency. Word “pauper.”
    L. W. ROBERTSON, for appellee.
    The petition does not show any liability on the part of Dina Smith to pay the claim of appellant. There is no obligation set out. She made no contract express or implied. The statute did not impose an obligation. The Mason county infirmary is the “poor-house” of the county. Dina Smith was received into the poor-house as one of the paupers of Mason county. The support and care of the poor is pure gratuitous charity, without any obligation express or implied on the part of the recipient to pay for same.
    On the contrary, the statute (sec. 3933, 3931, Kentucky Statutes) imposes the obligation on the county without any condition to support such paupers as Dina Smith, and no liability is imposed on her to reimburse the county in the event She thereafter becomes able by the acquisition of property by gift, inheritance or otherwise.
    The demurrer to appellant’s petition was properly sustained.
   Opinion of the court by

JUDGE BURNAM

Affirming.

By an act of tbe Legislature approved on the 4th of February, 1874, Mason county was authorized to purchase ground, and erect thereon a county poorhouse infirmary. Section 21 of the act provides that: “Where persons are admitted into said counity infirmary as paupers, and such persons be possessed of or the owners of real or personal property, or having an interest in same in reversion, or in any other manner, legally entitled to any gift, legacy, or bequest, of whatever nature or kind soever, the directors may, as soon after such persons are admitted to said infirmary as they may think proper, take possession of all or any such property, or other interest such pauper may lawfully be entitled to, and sell or dispose of same as 'hereinafter provided; and the net proceeds arising therefrom shall be applied, in whole or in part, under the especial directions of said directors, 'and in such manner as they may think best, to the maintenance of such person during the continuance of such person as a pauper in said infirmary.” Acts 1873-74, p. 200.

On the 19th day of February, 1893, Dina Smith, an indigent pauper, was received as an inmate of the institution, and remained there until January, 1898, receiving-such board, nursing, and medical attention as t'he institution afforded to its pauper patients. In January, 1898, she became a United States pensioner, and received in back pay, $670, and a further allowance of $8 per month,, which was to continue during her lifetime. In a proceeding in the Mason county court, she was, on the 23th day of January, 1898, found to be a person of unsound mind by reason of infirmity and weight of age,, and incompetent to manage her estate, and C. B. Pierce, Jr., was appointed her committee. Thereafter the board of directors of the county poorhous-e instituted this suit, in which they sought to recover a judgment against the-committee for $304, being the amount alleged to- be due by Dina Smith for board and medical attention during the time she was an inmate of the institution. A general demurrer was interposed by her committee, which was sustained, and- the petition dismissed, and the case is now here for review. It is insisted for appellant that; under section 21 of the charter, it is entitled to maintain this action, and that the petition states a good cause of action; that the powers conferred upon the directors of the Mason county infirmary by section 21 are analogous to the powers conferred upon the board of commissioners of insane asylums by section 257 of the Kentucky Statutes, Which provides that where patients who have been or may be supported) in either of said asylums have or shall acquire estate which can be subjected to debt, the board of commissioners, in every .-such case, shall sue for and may recover the amount of such patient’s- board at the rate of $200 per year. The section of the statute referred- to in the adt relating to insane -asylums expressly provides that the commissioner of the asylum shall, sue for the board of all patients who have been or may be inmates of such asylum who shall have acquired estate which can be subjected to debt. The section manifestly contemplated that hoard might be exacted from patients Who had or might acquire estate for past services, rendered to them while inmates of the asylum. While section 21 of .appellant’s charter authorized its directors to take possession of any property which its pauper inmates may be ■entitled to, and apply same to their support during the time they may actually be inmates o-f the infirm-ary, there is- nothing in the section which indicates that the directors of the institution are entitled to recover estate subsequently acquired by theise pauper inmates, and apply them to the discharge -of their board incurred previous to the acquisition of such estate. Section 3931 -of the Kentucky Statutes makes it the duty of the county court in term time, and the -county judge in vacation, to order any po-or person which he may deem a proper subject to be taken to the poorhouse and supported, and to cause medical aid to be' employed at the,public expense for such pauper; and no obligation rests upon the pauper to pay for the charity so -extended out of property which -he may subsequently acquire. If the appellee, Smith, continued to be an inmate of the poorhouse -after the reception of her pension from the government, appellant would be entitled to ba.ve paid over to it the amount of such pension, to be applied, under its direction, to her support and. maintenance. We think the provision of appellant’s charter is entirely prospective in its operation. For reasons indicated, the judgment is affirmed.