The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-30
MUST THEY PAY?
State Asks S4,3S4.2S From Belle
Abbott Estate.
For Care and Board at Winfield
Hospital.
A STATE CHARGE % YEARS
Administrator Says State Can't
Collect Under Law.
No Claim Was Filed Until
After WOman'S Death.

Next month the Kansas supreme
court will decide whether the state is
entitled to collect 81, 3S4.2S for the care,
maintenance and board of Belle Abb
bolt, who was for more than % years
an inmate of the Winfield school for
feeble minded. The Abbott woman
was the first inmate of the Winfield in
stitution and died there in October 1909.
Under the Kansas laws, the state is
permitted to collect for the care and
board of inmates of the insane hCspl-
tails, but the Winfield institution was
until 1909 conducted on strictly char1-
ia BILE basis. Yet the Johnson county
district court returned verdict for the
state in an action against r. R. Moore,
administrator of a rich estate to which
the feeble minded woman was heir.
Belle Abbott lived with her parents
III DeSoto, Johnson county. September
z 1881, she was adjudged of unsound
mind and sent to the Winfield institu-
ton. She remained there until October
1897, when the Cowley county PROBATE
court adjudged her insane and the wom-
an was brought to the Topeka hospital.
Less than two years later, August !,
1899, the officials at the Topeka asylum
discharged the woman, declaring that
she was not insane. On the day of her
discharge the old board of charities Or
dered Miss Abbotts return to Winfield
She stayed there until October II. 1909,
when she died after % years. enc
month and ten days confinement in the
two state institutions.
Left a Big Estate.
J. B. Abbott, the woman's father,
was one of the most wealthy men in
Johnson county. Shortly after his
death in 1897, his wife died and Belle
Abbott was the next legal heir. The
estate was administered by r. R.
Moore, appointed as administrator by
the johnson county probate court.
At no time during Belle Abbott's con-
finement in the Winfield school did the
state render a claim against either the
woman's parents or the Abbott estate.
Shortly after her death, however, a
claim was filed with Moore for $4,-
3S4.2S, for maintenance, care, treat
ment and board Moore refused to pay
the claim and the state brought suit.
1t was the first effort ever made by
the state to collect claim for the care
of an inmate of the Winfield institution;
and since Miss Abbott was the first in
mate of that school the states bill
figured at So a week-ran into a large
sum.
The Johnson county probate court
allowed the state 81, 872. An appeal was
taken to the district court and that
tribunal allowed the full claim. Now the
case is up to the supreme court and will
probably be decided within the next 80
days.
1t is contended by attorneys for the
Abbott estate that the Winfield school
was estaDnshed and conducted without
any legal provision for pay for the care
of inmates until after the death of Miss
Abbott. 1t is further pleaded that
there was no implied promise or contract
to pay for the womans board and care
and that the care of former years
which was intended and looked upon as
gratuitouS cannot now be declared
debt; and further that the law of 1909,
under which the state seeks to collect,
cannot be interpreted as retsoactive.
The case has attracted much atten-
ton and should the state succeed in
establishing its claim in the supreme
court, it is probable that thousands of
dollars can later be realized from rela-
tives or estates of persons who have
been inmates of the institution. AS the
statute of Limitations does not operate