11 Pa. Super. 74 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
William H. Darr and his family, consisting of wife and several children, resided upon a tract of land purchased by him in Union
The decree of the court certifying the proceedings from the court of common pleas to the quarter sessions is assigned for error but, as no exception was taken thereto at the time, the assignment need not be considered; but,.under the authority of Brickway’s Case, 80 Pa. 65, the court had undoubted authority to make such a decree. The facts in this case were almost identical with those of the case under consideration, the Supreme Court in a per curiam opinion saying: “ Under the law the proceeding could be in any court and, therefore, either hr the common pleas or quarter sessions. The petition of the ‘ respectable person ’ provided for in the 6th section was directed to the common pleas but the commission appointed under it, composed of a lawyer, a physician and another, directed their report to the court of quarter sessions and thenceforth the case proceeded therein, terminating in a commitment to the Western Pennsylvania hospital and finally in a rule on the overseers of Buffalo township, Butler county, to show cause why the quarter sessions should not certify that township as the place of legal settlement of the insane person. It is evident that the judges considered themselves as acting in the court of quarter sessions and, being the same judges and having the same powers either in the court of common pleas or quarter sessions, their order to certify the case, as it originally began in the common pleas, mto the quarter sessions was but a formality and produced no substantial change in the proceeding itself. It was done at the instance of the proper party and was, therefore, but an amendment made in pursuance of their sound discretion to produce uniformity in the proceeding before them.”
As to the jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions, which is incidentally denied by the appellant, it is true that under the 6th section of the act of April 20, 1869, supra, the court has no power to determine the place of settlement, but the 9th section of the same act gives specific power to the court to determine this question, and whether the rule be issued at the time the petition is presented or subsequently makes no difference. As was said in Brickway’s case, supra, “ The court of quarter
The eighth, ninth and tenth assignments relate to the findings of the examiner of facts relating to the settlement of the said Darr. Brickway’s case, supra, decides that an appeal does not lie from the decree of the court of quarter sessions in proceedings under the act of 1869, and that an appellate court, therefore, cannot examine errors dependent upon the evidence. These assignments might, therefore, be entirely disregarded, but we have carefully examined the evidence to which they relate and are satisfied that the examiner reached a proper conclusion upon competent testimony, which was confirmed by the court. Upon every ground, therefore, these assignments of error should be overruled.
The fifth, sixth and seventh assignments relate to the order of removal granted upon the petition of the overseers of Union township that Darr and his family were “ likely to become chargeable to the said district of Union township.” It is admitted that no notice of this proceeding was given to any one interested, and it is claimed that the case of Gilpin Twp. v. Parks Twp., 118 Pa. 84, which decides that “ An order of removal of an alleged poor person who has never been a burden to the township by relief obtained, upon the information of the overseers that he ■is likely to become chargeable, but without an adjudication by the justices of the necessary facts, with notice to the person affected, is void,” does not apply, for the reason that Darr was insane. There is a double answer to this objection: 1st. Darr was not declared insane at the time the order of removal was applied for. 2d. It affected his family as well as himself and, even if the objection was well taken as to notice to Darr, it certainly would not be as to his family. If the order was void, by reason of the failure to comply with the law in this respect, it was void in toto, and might well be disregarded, as it was by the examiner and the court below. The fifth, sixth and seventh assignments of error are, therefore, overruled.
It follows, from what has been said, that the second, third