92 Kan. 632 | Kan. | 1914
The plaintiff, alleging that he has resided in the state more than fifteen years and in the county more than ten years and is destitute of means of support and has no near relatives who are financially able to support him, and that he has lost the sight of both eyes and is otherwise by reason of disease and infirmities and his great age unable to perform any labor, has demanded of the county board that he be granted a pension sufficient for his maintenance, compliance with which request being refused he prays may be compelled by mandamus. The board answers that in its opinion it would be unwise to grant the pension, but that the county is and has been paying the plaintiff $10 per month for his support; that the granting of such pension is discretionary with the board. The plaintiff contends that the duty of the board is mandatory.
The constitution requires that the respective counties of the state shall provide as may be prescribed by law for those inhabitants'who by reason of age, infirmity, or other misfortune may have a claim upon the aid of society. (Const., art. 7, § 4.) Chapter 146 of the Laws of 1911, “An act authorizing the board of county commissioners of any county in Kansas to pay a monthly pension to certain disabled residents thereof,” provides that any county is authorized and empowered to pay such pension, not exceeding $50 a month, to persons afflicted like the plaintiff, whose parents and near relatives are not financially able to care for them, provided such persons have been residents of the state fifteen years and of the county ten years previous to the taking effect of the act. By chapter 149 of the Laws of 1913 this provision was amended so that the board is authorized and empowered to pay a monthly pension to a person thus afflicted who is wholly disabled from performing any manual labor, provided he has been a resident of the state for fifteen years and
It is always the rule that the meaning of a statute is to be derived from its general terms and manifest purpose, and the most cursory or the most thorough examination of the legislation in question leads alike to the conclusion that there was no thought in the legislative mind of compelling each county board to grant a pension to every applicant coming within the terms prescribed. Aside from the fact that a pension is usually regarded as a matter of grace and not of right (6 Words & Phrases, p. 5280), the language of the original act in the title and in both' sections is clearly permissive and bears no indication of a mandatory purpose. While there is an express prohibition upon granting any pension in excess of $25 a month without submitting the same to a vote of the electors, even such vote is not made binding upon the board to grant the pension, but simply “sufficient to authorize the granting of the
Following the statutory requirement. (Gen. Stat. 1909, § 9037, subdiv. 2) to construe words and phrases according to the approved usage of the language, we must hold that the granting of the pension demanded is discretionary and not mandatory.
The writ is therefore denied.