47 Wis. 31 | Wis. | 1879
The statute clearly imposes the obligation upon every town of relieving and supporting all poor and indigent persons having a lawful settlement therein, whenever they shall stand in need of such support. Sec. 1, ch. 34, Tay. Stats. The law is founded upon the humane idea that a poor person has a right to live, and that when one, through age, disease or misfortune, is unable to procure the means of bodily subsistence, he shall not die from want or exposure, but the property of the town in which he resides shall be chargeable with the expense of his maintenance.']; The intent and policy of the law upon this subject are too plain to require comment. Meyer v. The Town of Prairie du Chien, 9 Wis., 234; Town of Westfield v. Sauk County, 18 id., 624. It seems that, by an arrangement made by the county board of supervisors, which the board was authorized to make under chapter 34, the obligation and expense of supporting the poor in Iowa county became chargeable upon the county. Of course, the burden, which would have otherwise rested upon the towns, of maintaining the poor, was shifted to the county. Thus far there is no room for controversy in this case. It is equally clear that
The learned attorney for the county insists that it clearly appears from the evidence that Mrs. Clayton, while she was an inmate of the county poor-house, was supported there in pursuance of a contract between her sons and the county authorities, and that the effect of this arrangement was to relieve the county from all responsibility of providing for her maintenance. We do not so understand either the facts or the law of the case. The statute contains provisions by which certain persons, having sufficient ability therefor, may be compelled to support in part or wholly their poor relatives. This is a compulsory proceeding to enforce what is deemed a natural duty, but it does not amount to a contract. It is a remedy in aid of a public liability, proper and just enough, but does not relieve the public of its obligation to support its paupers.
We do not deem it necessary, and it certainly is not pleasant, to dwell upon the facts disclosed in this record. The learned counsel for the plaintiff, in his brief, has commented on them with much sevei’ity of language, but, perhaps, not more so than the facts warranted. For when one considers the way in which this poor old woman was treated by the public authorities of the county, and neglected by her children, he feels a keen sense of shame and indignation, which it is not easy to repress or give utterance to in mild words. Here was a poor, blind, helpless woman, nearly one hundred years of age, utterly destitute, who had been a county charge since 1868. In the spring of 1874, she was taken from the county poor-house, the only home she had in the world, by direction of one of the superintendents of the poor of the county, and carried “ with some goods ” to where her children lived. “ The goods ” were put in a barn, and she was left in the public street “ sitting on the woodpile.” Her children turned her from their doors, and suffered her to wander about the country, and find shelter and
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.