2 Vt. 437 | Vt. | 1830
By the statute which was in force till the autumn -of 1817, a residence in any town for one year, without being warned to depart, confered a legal settlement in such town. The pauper was never warned to depart from the town of Poultney. Therefore, the only question is, whether he resided there for the space of one year, within the meaning of that statute. In all questions relating to the settlement of paupers, the court has pursued a rigid construction of the law, as between contending towns; viewing the rights acquired by one, and the obligations imposed upon another,as the result of positive enactment, and not to be affected by the seeming equity or hardship of particular cases. Hence it was necessary that a residence, for the purpose of gaining a settlement, should be of a character and description fairly answering the intent of the legislature. While the pauper remained at Poult-
Under the English statute of 13th and 14th Ch. II, by which a settlement is acquired by a residence of 40 days upon a tenement of £10, annual value, the construction has been so strict as to require the personal residence of the party for that time, without attributing any importance to the fact that his wife and family may have resided upon the tenement, during his occasional or necessary absence. This doctrine was strongly illustrated by The King vs. Inhab. of St. George, &c., (7 T. R. 466,) and The King vs. Inhabitants of St. Mary Lambeth, (8 T. R., 240.) But admitting that, in reference to the more protracted terms of residence required in this country to confer a settlement,this extreme strictness ought to be relaxed,(4 Mass. 312-7 Id., 363,) and that the case of Burlington vs. Calais, (1 Vt. Rep., 385,) was correctly decided ; yet between the last case mentioned and the present, there are distinctions, as obvious at least, as many others, upon which decisions in this branch of the law have frequently turned. It is there stated among other grounds of the judgement rendered, that the pauper several times visited his family at Calais, that he intended living there unless he found aplace that suited him elsewhere, that he found no such place
Judgement affirmed,