21 N.W.2d 57 | S.D. | 1945
Anna Forman was committed to the State Hospital for the Insane on May 23, 1935, by the Board of Insanity of Charles Mix county. The Board found that her legal settlement at the time was in Lawrence county. The superintendent of the Hospital held and treated her as a charge against Lawrence county, and filed claims against that county for her board and care at the rate of $20 per month, which claims Lawrence county refused to pay. The matter was brought to the notice of the attorney general, and after investigation he determined that the patient was a proper charge against Lawrence county. Then Lawrence county appealed to the circuit court. The case was tried, *51 and the court decided that the patient was a proper charge against Charles Mix county. Thereafter Charles Mix county appealed to this court.
The Forman family moved to Charles Mix county in the year 1926 and established that as their legal settlement. They continued to live in that county until March or April, 1934, when they moved to Lawrence county. The question is whether the settlement in Charles Mix county was lost by acquiring a new settlement in Lawrence county.
[1] The expense for care, board and keeping of a patient in the Hospital is a charge against the county in which the patient has a legal settlement. SDC 30.0213. Section 50.0102 relating to the care of poor persons defines "legal settlement" as follows:
"Every male person and every unmarried female over the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in this state one year and in the county ninety days, shall thereby gain a legal settlement in such county."
Subdivision (1) of the same section provides:
"A married woman shall always follow and have the settlement of her husband if he has any within this state * * *."
[2, 3] While the above statute relates to the care of poor persons, the definition of the term "legal settlement" contained therein is equally applicable to that term as used in the laws relating to the care of insane persons. In re Bigelow,
[4, 5] A residence is established by personal presence in a fixed and permanent abode, with the intent of remaining there. Cass County v. Audubon County,
[6] In view of the above conclusions, the circuit court should re-examine and decide the question of whether the legal settlement which was established in Lawrence county was later lost to Butte county.
The judgment and the order denying a new trial are reversed and the cause is remanded.
ROBERTS and RUDOLPH, JJ., and BENSON, Circuit Judge, concur.
SMITH, P.J., took no part in the decision.
BENSON, Circuit Judge, sitting for POLLEY, J.