225 Wis. 169 | Wis. | 1937
Plerbert Borgwardt and his family were residents of the town of Dale from 1913 to April 6, 1930. During all o.f this period Borgwardt was engaged in the operation of a blacksmith shop and was self-supporting. Sometime prior to April 6, 1930, he disposed of the shop for the sum of $500 and moved to the city of Milwaukee, where he resided for approximately eleven months, during which
This appeal involves the applications of sec. 49.02 (4) and (7), Stats., which read as follows :
“(4) Every person of full age who shall have resided in any town, village, or city in this state one whole year shall thereby gain a settlement therein; but no residence of a person in any town, village, or city while supported therein as a pauper . . . shall operate to give such person a settlement therein. The time spent by any person as an inmate of any home, asylum or institution for the care of aged, neglected or indigent persons, maintained by any lodge, society or corporation, or of any state or United States institution for the care of veterans of the military and naval service shall not be included as part of the year necessary to acquire a legal set*173 tlement in the town, city or village in which said home, asylum or institution is located, nor shall such time so spent be included as part of the year necessary to lose a legal settlement in any other town, city or village of this state. The time spent by any person, while residing or while employed on any Indian reservation over which the state has no jurisdiction, shall not be included as part of the year necessary to acquire a legal settlement in the town, city, or village in which said reservation is located, nor shall such time so spent be included within the year necessary to lose his legal settlement in any other town, city, or village of this state.”
“(7) Every settlement when once legally acquired shall continue until it be lost or defeated by acquiring a new one in this state or by voluntary and uninterrupted absence from the town, village, or city in which such legal settlement shall have been gained for one whole year or upward; and upon acquiring a new settlement or upon the happening of such voluntary and uninterrupted absence all former settlements shall be defeated and lost.”
The purpose of this statute is thus described in Rolling v. Antigo, 211 Wis. 220, 222, 248 N. W. 119, 120:
“The statute in question is designed to fasten liability for support of a citizen who falls below the level of subsistence, upon the political subdivision in which he has his settlement at the time when he becomes dependent. If a person has had his productive years in one political subdivision or is on the way to a recovery to become self-supporting, it is no more than just and proper that the community in which he has lived should bear the burden resulting from his misfortune or incapacity. The statute in question was designed to prevent one municipality from shifting this burden upon another, and the test set up for the acquirement of a settlement by a person who is receiving aid is for the purpose of determining which municipality shall be liable. . . .”
The liability of the town of Ellington for relief furnished by the town of Dale depends on whether Borgwardt had a legal settlement in Ellington at the time the relief was given.
The question presented is a troublesome one. Borgwardt was concededly not a pauper during his original residence in Dale, nor is there any evidence that he had achieved this status before coming to Ellington, although it is manifest that his financial condition was becoming progressively worse. Does the fact that he received the major portion of his family’s support from his father-in-law after his removal to Ellington warrant the conclusion that they were being supported in that town as paupers, although no request was ever made to the public authorities or to any private charity for relief or assistance? We think that this question must receive a negative answer. It is held in this state that one who receives support from relatives who have a moral or a legal obligation to come to his assistance does not thereby become a pauper. In Holland v. Belgium, 66 Wis. 557, 559, 29 N. W. 558, the court said, after reciting the financial condition of the alleged pauper:
“But, notwithstanding this apparently helpless condition of the famity, the evidence on the part of the defendant shows that Becker had some money and real and personal property, which had enabled him, with the aid of some of his relations, to support himself and family up to the time when the town of Holland furnished the articles above mentioned. . . .”
“We do not think that the support of a mother by her daughter should be deemed in the law a merely charitable support, within the rule stated in the case of Saukville v. Grafton, 68 Wis. 192, at p. 195.”
We do not attempt here to determine whether Borg-wardt’s father-in-law had a moral obligation to furnish food, clothing, and other items of support to Borg war dt, although a persuasive argument might be made in support of an affirmative answer. We do not deem the answer to this question determinative. The point is that the parties were in such relationship as to lead inevitably to the conclusion that the support was not furnished for a charitable purpose, but rather to prevent Borgwardt from becoming a pauper and to avoid the necessity of a resort by him to the public authorities for relief. Where one responds to the calls of friendship or such a relationship as is here involved to prevent a friend or relative from becoming a public charge, the motive is that of affection or family pride rather than charity as the latter term is commonly understood, and, especially in view of the economic emergencies created by the depression, it would be a startling and extraordinary distortion of the purpose of such gifts and the sense in which the term “pauper” is commonly understood to hold that the beneficiaries were being supported as paupers. This is especially true where the person benefited had never theretofore achieved the status of pauper. It may well be that, where one already has such a status, a different conclusion may be warranted by the facts of a particular case. It was held in the Rolling Case, supra, that one having the status of a pauper, who was supported by a voluntary charitable institution, was being supported as a pauper in the statutory sense although he did not receive his aid from the public authorities.
In this case Borgwardt, when he went to Ellington, had a business which he had purchased, had some income, and had some property which could be liquidated and applied to his support. Ide was supported principally by his father-in-law and made no claim upon the public authorities or upon any organized charity. We think that he did not become a pauper during the period of his residence in Ellington, and that, having lived in Ellington continuously for more than a year without being supported there as a pauper, he acquired a legal settlement in Ellington.
The next question is whether Borgwardt acquired a legal settlement in Dale on his return to that town. His condition during the first eight months of his residence in Dale did not materially change. He had available for his support the proceeds of his last life insurance policy and those from'the sale of his automobile and other personal property.. He still received the major part of his support from his father-in-law. If, under the circumstances, he had acquired a legal residence in Ellington, he was certainly in the process of establishing one in Dale during these eight months. It is urged that two circumstances interrupted this process. At some time after the eighth month of his residence in Dale, Borgwardt received, at his request, four sacks of flour from the town of Dale. This -was not relief furnished at the expense of the town of Dale. The flour had been sent to the town by the Red Cross society for distribution to the families of the unemployed and needy. From the evidence, it appears that the flour was furnished without any restriction other than that it was to go to families who had the greatest need for it. We cannot believe that acceptance of this flour under these circumstances was sufficient to bring Borgwardt within the statutory definition of receiving support as a
It is the conclusion of the court that Borgwardt had established a legal settlement in Dale at the time of receiving relief in that town, and that the town of Ellington was under no liability to reimburse the town of Dale for his support. This conclusion makes it unnecessary to examine or determine several procedural questions that are raised by the town of Ellington.
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.