Case Name: CITY OF RUTLAND v. TOWN OF PROCTOR
Court: Vermont Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Vermont
Decision Date: 1896-01
Citations: 68 Vt. 153
Docket Number: 
Parties: CITY OF RUTLAND v. TOWN OF PROCTOR.
Judges: 
Reporter: Vermont Reports
Volume: 68
Pages: 153–154

Head Matter:
CITY OF RUTLAND v. TOWN OF PROCTOR.
January Term, 1896.
Pauper. Residence -within limits of town before incorporation.
A residence within the territorial limits of the town of Proctor previous to its incorporation in 1887 cannot be resorted to for the purpose of charging that town with the support of a pauper under No. 45, Acts of 1892.
Assumpsit for the support of certain paupers. Plea, the general issue. Heard upon the report of a referee at the September term, 1895, Rutland county, Rdss, C. J., presiding. Judgment for the plaintiff. The defendant excepts.
The question was whether the paupers had a sufficient residence to charge the defendant town.
The town of Proctor, the defendant, was created by No. 137, Acts of 1886, out of territory formerly embraced within the town of Rutland. The referee found that the pauper had resided within the territorial limits of Proctor for more than three years, supporting himself and family, but that a portion of this residence was before and a portion after it became a town.
Section 3 of the act incorporating the defendant reads as-follows :
“The towns of Rutland, Pittsford and Proctor shall be respectively liable for the support of all persons who now are or hereafter shall become paupers, whose settlement was gained within their respective limits ; and also in like manner for the support of all paupers now on the town farms of Rutland and Pitts'ford, who were sent there from their respective limits.”
Frank C. Partridge and Butler & Moloney for the defendant.
Residence before could not be added to that after the defendant became a town to make up the three years. Worcester v. East Montfelier, 61 Vt. 139; Vershire v. Hyde Park, 64 Vt. 638.
Section 3 of the act of incorporation does not help the plaintiff, since that refers to a law which has been abolished.
C. L. Howe, City Attorney, for the plaintiff.

Opinion:
TAFT, J.
The defendant cannot be made liable for the support of the paupers in question under No. 45, Acts of 1892, unless it is shown that the three years' continuous residence of the paupers was subsequent to the organization of the town in March, 1887. Such a three years' residence partly before and partly subsequent to the organization is not sufficient. The question is not affected by s. 3 of the act of incorporation of the defendant. The disposition of this question renders the other questions raised immaterial.
Judgment reversed and judgment for the defendant.