67 Iowa 127 | Iowa | 1885
Several questions are presented, but it will not be necessary to consider all of them. The record contains the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the court below, and the plaintiff contends that, taken together, they show that the court misconceived the true rule of law as applicable to the case. The findings of the court below are as follows:
“(1) I find that immediately prior to April. 1, 1876, Gr. L. Hutchinson and family, consisting of a wife and six children, had a settlement in Wright county; (2) that about
The court seems to have attached great importance to. Hutchinson’s condition at the time he removed from Wright county. The idea of the court manifestly was that Wright county was not chargeable for support furnished after the removal, unless Hutchinson had a pauper record prior to his removal, or, at least, was in needy circumstances at the time of his removal. But in our opinion it was entirely immaterial what Hutchinson’s condition or record was or had been at the ti me of his removal. A poor person should not be allowed to suffer because there was a time in his previous history when he was not poor. The condition of a person who has never had anything but a pauper record is bad enough. Certainly we cannot hold that a person who has not always had a pauper record may be worse.
Possibly it was not the idea of the court that a person who removes from one county to another cannot become a proper subject for poor relief, unless he was such subject prior to his removal. We are inclined to think it was not, and that the idea of the court was that where a person removes from one county to another, and falls into a state of want, the county of his residence must furnish relief, but cannot look to the county of his settlement, unless it can show that the person relieved had a pauper record, or, at least, was in needy circumstances, prior to removal. But in our opinion there is no warrant for such a rule, and we do not understand the defendant’s counsel as seriously contending that there is. . The
The duty of township trustees, when applied to for poor
Reverses.