178 A. 888 | Vt. | 1935
The plaintiff, a practicing physician and surgeon, seeks to recover by this action of contract, for professional services rendered to Joseph Archambault, an alleged poor person in need of such assistance. The complaint is in the form of general assumpsit, and the answer is a general denial. The trial below was by court in the Orleans municipal court. Upon facts found and filed, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, and the defendant excepted.
It is found that Archambault, who had lived with his wife in the defendant town for about two years, on July 28, 1931, while at work for George Musgrove, at Holland, fell from a load of hay, and suffered a fracture of the sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae. The plaintiff was called, found the injured man in a desperate condition, and removed him in an ambulance to the hospital at Newport. Before he left with the patient, the plaintiff inquired of the Archambaults if they could pay for the injured man's treatment and they replied that they could not. Some reference was made to his government insurance policy and adjusted compensation certificate. The plaintiff tried to get into communication with the overseer of the poor of the defendant town, but as the latter was not at home, a telephone *240 message was left with his wife. The plaintiff was anxious to get his patient to the hospital and left it to Musgrove to call the overseer. As a result of Musgrove's call, the overseer called during the evening at Musgrove's house and learned about the accident. He made no promise, then or thereafter, to pay the expenses of Archambault's accident. The charges on the books of the plaintiff were made to Archambault.
It is expressly found that "the Archambaults had no resources which were readily available for use at the time of the accident, and were poor persons in need of assistance."
This finding is excepted to on the ground that it is unwarranted, because the uncontradicted evidence showed that Archambault, who was an ex-service man, had a "bonus" from the government of $1,551, on which he had borrowed $125, and on which he could borrow one-half of the balance, and because he had a government insurance policy for $10,000, payable to his wife, on which he could have obtained a loan. The evidence tended to show that it took about thirteen months to obtain the $125 loan, but that a loan on the policy might be obtained in about a week.
However these sources of credit ultimately affect Archambault's standing under our poor laws, he was at the time the doctor arrived, prima facie, a poor person in need of assistance. He had no money or tangible property, and no resources available at that time or soon enough to do any good in his desperate situation. In such circumstances, one who, bona fide, renders services to another, apparently a pauper and actually standing in need of relief, may, if in other respects his case is made out, recover therefor from the town chargeable under the principle of Town ofRipton v. Town of Brandon,
Remember this man's situation: He had a broken neck; he was paralyzed from his neck down, urgency of action was imperative; his life was at stake. There was no time to apply for or obtain a loan from the government. It cannot be said as matter of law that this unfortunate man was not then and there a poor person in need of assistance within the meaning of the statute. Whether his sources of revenue can be made available by either party hereto is a question we need not consider, nor *242 need we consider any question of an express contract, since no question of such an engagement is made.
Since the enactment of No. 55, Acts of 1892, an application for relief is required by law. It matters not who makes the application. Town of Waitsfield v. Town of Craftsbury,
That it was the plaintiff's intention to make the town chargeable for his services is plain enough. The only object he could have had in attempting to establish communication with Flynn was to accomplish this. But did he satisfy the other requirement of the rule as above stated? Did he make it so plain to him that he understood or ought to have understood that an application for public aid was being made? We think he did not. The message that the plaintiff himself gave Mrs. Flynn was nothing that Flynn need give attention to, for the most that is shown by the record is that the plaintiff asked her to tell her husband to call him. The most that appears from the record of the interview between Musgrove and Flynn is that *243 the latter was told about the accident and that the Archambaults might need help. More than this was required to make an application. Indeed, there is no finding that an application was made. The finding is that the overseer gained knowledge "that the Archambaults needed assistance and that the doctor looked to the town of Holland for his pay." This was not enough. The judgment was unwarranted without an affirmative finding that such an application was made, and on the evidence the finding should have been that it was not.
The plaintiff argues that an emergency existed, and it is so found. But that fact did not affect the liability of the defendant town. The rights of the plaintiff are to be determined by the express terms of the statute. There is no such thing as a common-law liability in these pauper matters, and "where the statute imposes no liability there is none, and that is the end of it." Town of Morristown v. Town of Hardwick,
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.