124 Mich. 17 | Mich. | 1900
Henry Jeffrey came to this country from England in 1886, and lived in Hillsdale county, where he worked- as a farm hand, until November, 1895, when he removed to Jackson county. He was unmarried, and was never aided as a pauper by either county until he was committed to the insane asylum from Jackson county in September, 1896. At that time his property consisted of a horse, harness, wagon, and a small sum of money which he had saved from his earnings as a farm laborer. Jackson county has paid to the asylum for his cai-e $419.03. Upon a proper application, the circuit judge having jurisdiction of Jackson county found Jeffrey’s legal settlement to be in Hillsdale county, and ordered that it refund said sum to Jackson county. The case is here on certiorari.
This case would be on all fours with In re Woodcock, 123 Mich. 369 (82 N. W. 71), but for the fact that the law upon which that case turned, viz., Act No. 178, Pub. Acts 1897, took effect nearly a year after Jeffrey was committed to the asylum. In order to sustain the decision of the learned circuit judge, it is therefore necessary to give that law a retroactive effect, or find that he had not gained a legal settlement in Jackson county under pre-existing laws.
The word “settlement,” as used in these and similar statutes, has a different meaning from the word “residence” in other statutes. For voting purposes, it is enough for an elector to have resided in a township 20 days, though, in order to entitle him to support as a pauper, a year has long been necessary, and his residence must have been under conditions which the law recognized as such as constituted his residence a legal settlement. See 18 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 778.
The statute (2 Comp. Laws 1897, § 4534) provides that
Construing all of these provisions together, there is some plausibility to the claims (1) that a township can never be liable for the support of a'pauper, unless he has been “a resident and inhabitant” of such township for a year; (2) when a settlement has not been gained in any township of a county where an indigent person may be the county must support him, temporarily at least, but may require his removal to, and reimbursement from, another county, from which he has been removed after becoming a pauper.
So far the statute has not provided for the raising of the question of settlement between counties, or between townships of different counties, it being apparently the duty of the county where one becomes a pauper to support him. This was held in the case of Superintendents of Poor of Kalkaska Co. v. Superintendents of Poor of Grand Traverse Co., 120 Mich. 247 (79 N. W. 196) where the statute was discussed.
Order affirmed.