Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-25
WATERBURY EVENING DEMOCRAT. FRIDAY MAY 25 leoo
MAY REFUSE INDECENT INSANE.
Attorney Generals Advice. in Case
 Residence is Not Given.

] The attorney general, in an opin-
 Ion to Superintendent H. s. Noble of
 the Connecticut Hospital for the h.
 sane, advises that the hospital may
 refuse to receive an indigent insane I person, when the order of commit
 ment does not set forth the town of
 which the court of probate finds the
 insane person to be a resident at the
 time of commitment. The opinion Is as follows:
 In all cases of commitment of pau l pers the law definitely fixes the lia. bility for their support, to the ex- l tent of $2 per week for each patient, Ion the town whose selectmen apply
 for the commitment. Thus the state
 is protected against loss, to the ex-
 tent set forth, in the cases of pauper commitments.
 l In the commitment of what is known as findigent" insane persons, the state was theoretically, but not | actually, protected from loss for, their support. The law, 1t is true, provided l that the person applying to the court of probate for the commitment of an indigent Insane person, not pauper, should paw the state $2 per week for his support. This obligation was as- sumed to be secured by bond with surety. It was not, however, matter of infrequent occurrence for the per- son thus obligated, as we'll as the surety, to fail to make the payments to the state. It then devolved on the hospital, or the state, to discover, If it could, the pauper settlement of such indigent insane patient, and re- cover the $2 per week from that town; If, however, the state was un- able to locate the pauper settlement of. the 'indigent" insane person, which. as you know, sometimes oc- cured, the entire burden of support ing such patient. as practical pro- portion, devolved on the state.
 To protect the state from the loss arising from this condition of things, Chapter 1S8 of the acts of 1903 was enacted. This act was repealed in 1905, and chapter 196, above quoted, substituted in its place. Under the provisions of this last act the town in which the indigent insane person resides at the time of commitment is made liable for the $2 per week, in the event that the person applying for his commitment fails to pay. The act protects the state against loss by substituting the liability of the com. paratively certain town of residence in place of the liability of the town, often difficult and sometimes impos- sible to determine, in which the per- son committed had a pauper settle ment.
 In order to carry out the purpose of the act, and protect the state, the court of probate, in committing an in- digent person, must determine his | residence and cause such residence to apear, as determined, in the commit- | ment papers. Failure to do so is violation of both the letter and the | spirit of the act, and deprices the | state of the protection which the | statute was enacted to afford.
 advise you that the Connecticut | for the Insane may legally 1 refuse to receive any indigent insane l person committed to the hospital by | a court of probate on and by commit ment papers which fail to show the | residence of such indigent person at thA time of commitment While this power to refuse to receive an indi-'t gent insane person is vested primar- fly in the trustees it may be dele gated to you as superintendent by !! action on the part of the trustees.