185 Pa. 198 | Pa. | 1898
Opinion by
The learned court below was clearly right in awarding the writ of peremptory mandamus in this case. The Act of March 11, 1837, P. L. 45, which established the directors of the poor of 'the county of Northampton, erected them into “ one body politic corporate in law to all intents and purposes, relative to the poor of the county of Northampton.” _ They were clothed with the right of perpetual succession, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, to take and hold lands and tenements and to erect suitable buildings for the reception, use and accommodation of the poor of the county, and “to provide all things necessary for the lodging, maintenance and employment of said poor,” and to appoint a treasurer, steward, matron and physician and all other necessary attendants that may be necessary “ for the said poor respectively.” Other powers and duties were conferred and imposed upon them essential to the proper discharge of their official functions. By the fifth section of the act it was provided as follows : “ It shall be the duty of the said directors, on or before the first day of November in each and every year, to furnish the commissioners of said county with an estimate of the probable expense of the poor and poorhouse for one year, and it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to assess and cause to be collected the amount of said estimate which shall be paid to said directors by the county treasurer on warrants drawn in their favor by the county commissioners as the same may be found necessary.”
It is very apparent that the entire business of caring and providing for the poor of the county was devolved by the act upon the directors of the poor, and it follows hence that they, and they alone, wore required by the positive terms of the law, as well as by the plain necessities of the case, to fix and determine the annual amount that would be required for the support and maintenance of the poor. It would be impossible for the commissioners of the county to discharge this duty, for the simple
We see no error in?the ruling of the learned court below and therefore sustain the decree.
Judgment affirmed and appeal dismissed at the cost of the appellants.