111 Ga. 493 | Ga. | 1900
The facts of this case will be found in the reporter’s statement of the same. We shall not deal with all the as
It is contended that, “ dealing with the situation as the trustees find it, no necessity exists for such an institution as a complete poorhouse in or near Augusta, as that maintained by the public is sufficient to meet the demand, although the city has grown in population from 5,000 at the death of the testator to 50,000 at the present time; that while the income in hand is not sufficient to support and maintain a poorhouse in all its branches, yet it is sufficient to establish and maintain some department of a poorhouse.” This argument, if it proves anything, proves too much ; for if there is no necessity for a complete poorhouse, because the public maintain such a poorhouse, which is sufficient to meet the demand, it would seem that there is no necessity to establish and maintain any branch of a poorhouse. Where is the necessity for establishing “ some department of a poorhouse,” if the poorhouse maintained by the county authorities is “a complete poorhouse,” that is, “a poorhouse in all its branches”? But, with all due deference to the trustees and the learned counsel who so ably represents them, we are unable to see much force in the argument that-there is no necessity for establishing a poorhouse. The fact that there is a poorhouse in Richmond county, in which the county authorities undertake to provide for the wants of the most destitute people, does not make the circumstances now .so different from those which existed at the death of the testator as to render it unnecessary for the trustees of this fund to use the income in supplying the necessities of life to people in need of the same, who are not cared for in the county institution. The testator made the provision under consideration with full knowledge that such a county institution existed in his day, and, in the language of this court upon a former occasion, when this clause of the will was under consideration for another purpose, “ The proper inference to he drawn from this provision of the will is, as it seems to us, that the testator
Another objection to the judgment is, it takes from the agents appointed by the testator the right to select, from the general class which he indicated, the particular persons who shall be
■ The judgment is reversed, and direction is given that the court again, in the light of what is laid down in this opinion and of such evidence as may be introduced, investigate the question whether or not a poorhouse may be established and maintained in accordance with the testamentary scheme. To this end, any citizen of Richmond county who desires to do so may be allowed to intervene and introduce testimony. If it should still appear impossible to carry out that scheme, the court is directed to cause an inquiry to be made as to whether or not, by allowing the annual income to accumulate for a while longer,
Judgment reversed, with'direction.