22 Me. 433 | Me. | 1843
The opinion of the Court was afterwards drawn up by
— This is a writ of error sued out according to the provisions of the former statute, c. 122, <§> 16, to correct an error alleged in a judgment of the District Court. The decision must depend upon a-construction of that clause in the fifteenth section of the statute, which declares, “ that all persons actually chargeable, or who through age or infirmity, idleness or dissoluteness, are likely to become chargeable to places, wherein they are- found, but in which they have no lawful settlement, may be removed to the places of their lawful settlements, if they have any within the State.” If the intention was to authorize the removal of those persons, who might be considered as likely to .become chargeable at some future and as yet uncertain time, the persons named in the complaint, or some of them would seem to be included. But if the intention was to authorize their removal only, when the fact, whether they were likely to become chargeable, would not depend upon a contingency, but upon an ascertained necessity, then they should not be considered as included.
The argument is not without weight, that the phrase, likely to become chargeable, cannot properly be restricted to cases of ascertained necessity. It might, if considered alone, well receive a construction more comprehensive. It must however be considered in connexion with other language used in the section. And the whole should be so imperative, as necessarily to require it, to authorize a construction, which might subject persons to the loss of present rights and comforts; place them under restraint, and occasion present suffering, for fear, that
Judgment affirmed.