Court Opinion

ID: 3589394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 23:38:25.756235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:58:23.520897
License: Public Domain

The referee finds that the plaintiff worked for the defendant, at his request, part of the time on the county farm and part of the time on the property of Wemple, at a sum agreed to be paid monthly for his services; that the wife also worked for Wemple, and that during all *Page 327 
the time the plaintiff and his family were boarded in the poor house, and the cost of such board charged to the commissioners, and also charged to commissioners of emigration, the plaintiff and his family being emigrants. The plaintiff was paid by Wemple, in part, for his services, which was allowed by the referee. The referee also finds that the plaintiff and his family were able-bodied persons, and that the keeping of them in the poor house was a fraud on the public.
All the questions involved were questions of fact for the referee, and with his decision we should not interfere. We are asked to review the case upon the facts, and reverse the judgment as being against the evidence. For this there is not the shadow of an excuse. There is ample testimony to show that the plaintiff worked for Wemple; that Wemple agreed to pay a fixed rate of wages, and that he afterwards admitted his liability by payments on account. Throughout the whole case there was no evidence to show that the plaintiff was ever informed that he was working on behalf of the public, but on the contrary the fact of payments on account, and of his being sent to work on the private property of Wemple, is sufficient to contradict such a supposition.
Besides, it would not follow that the commissioners were entitled to the labor of persons paid for by the commissioners of emigration. They received pay for their board, and were not, as of course, entitled to their labor also.
When the referee finds that the plaintiff and his family were kept on the books of the poor house as paupers, and that such arrangement was a gross fraud on the county and the commissioners of emigration, and that the services rendered were not rendered by the plaintiff and his wife as paupers, but on contracts made with the defendant, his findings are amply sustained by the evidence.
There is no reason whatever for interfering with this judgment, and the same should be affirmed.
All the judges concurring, judgment affirmed. *Page 328