120 Mich. 247 | Mich. | 1899
The facts of the case agreed upon in the court below, so far as they are essential to an understanding of the legal questions involved, are as follows : The action is brought to recover money claimed to be due the county of Kalkaska for money paid out by said county for aid and support of poor persons claimed to have been residents of the county of Grand Traverse. One Burt Hurlbert was, with his family, a resident of the said county of Grand Traverse for some five years up to about the 21st of September, 1895. The said Hurlbert
Section 1755, 1 How. Stat., provides that poor persons unable to support themselves shall be maintained by the county in which they may be. Section 1786 provides that, in those counties in which the distinction between township and county poor shall not be abolished by the board of supervisors, the poor having a settlement in any township in such counties shall be supported at the expense of such township, and the poor not having such settlement shall be supported by the county in which they may he, as thereinbefore provided. The succeeding section prescribes what shall constitute a settlement. These sections very clearly cast the burden of maintaining paupers upon the county in which they may be, except as to poor having gained a settlement in counties in which the distinction between county and township poor has not been abrogated, in which nase the pauper is to be supported at the expense of the township in the county in which he has gained a settlement. Unless, therefore, there is found in some provisions of the statute authority for charging this expense to the county of earlier residence, it is clear that this action cannot be maintained. The only sections having' direct bearing on the question are sections 1767, 1768, and 1769. The first of these sections makes it an offense to remove or entice any poor person into another county with the intent to make such county chargeable with his support.
The judgment is affirmed.