Thomas v. Macon County

74 S.W. 999, 175 Mo. 68, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 45
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 27, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 74 S.W. 999 (Thomas v. Macon County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. Macon County, 74 S.W. 999, 175 Mo. 68, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 45 (Mo. 1903).

Opinion

YALLIANT, J.

— Plaintiff as treasurer of the State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 at Fulton sues the defendant county for money expended in maintaining one William Jones, an inmate of the asylum, and alleged to be a citizen and "resident of that county.

The account sued on runs from August 3," 1893, to October 1, 1899. The answer was a general denial. The cause was tried by the court, jury waived. There was a finding and judgment for the defendant from which the plaintiff appeals.

The plaintiff on the trial introduced in evidence an indictment of the grand jury of Macon county at the September term, 1891, of the circuit court against the person concerning whom this suit has arisen, designating him as “William Jones, late of the county aforesaid,” and charging him with the crime of burglary; also the court record showing the conviction and sentence to the penitentiary of the indicted man, his subsequent pardon by the Governor during his term in the penitentiary on the'ground that he was insane, and his removal and confinement as an insane patient in the Fulton asylum. Plaintiff also introduced itemized accounts for the maintenance of the insane man at the asylum duly certified by the superintendent as if in compliance with sections 4853 and 4873, Revised Statutes 1899, and evidence tending to show that he was an insolvent person.

Defendant’s testimony was in the main that of well-acquainted citizens and officials of Macon county tending to prove that the insane man was never a resident of the county. Defendant also introduced evidence to the effect that the man when he was on trial testified that he did not live in the county and was a tramp.

The plaintiff asked several instructions, all of which were refused. They were: a peremptory direction for a finding for the plaintiff; that the indictment, conviction, commitment, subsequent pardon on the ground of insanity and reception of the insane man into the asylum [72]*72and keeping Mm there rendered the defendant county liable for the cost of his maintenance; that the indictment and conviction in Macon county created a presumption that the man was a citizen thereof and that presumption should prevail until satisfactory evidence is shown that he was a citizen of some other county in the State of Missouri; that the impressions of witnesses that he was not a resident, and that the statements of the man himself that he was a tramp, were not evidence; that the words “proper county” in section 2666, Revised Statutes 1899, mean the county in which the person was indicted and convicted. Exceptions to the refusal of the instructions were duly preserved.

The plaintiff’s cause of action, if any he has, is founded entirely on the statute law relating to the subject. If, therefore, he is entitled to recover he will be able to point to a statute which under the circumstances of this case imposes the burden of maintaining the insane man in question upon the defendant county; if no such statute can be shown, the county' is not liable. The plaintiff realizing this, has pointed out certain sections of the statute on which he relies.

Section 2666, Revised Statutes 1899, makes it the duty of the Governor, when he ascertains that a convict in the penitentiary has become insane, to pardon such insane person or suspend the sentence and he “may by Ms warrant to the sheriff of the proper county, or the warden of the penitentiary, ’ ’ cause Mm to be removed to the lunatic asylum and kept there for treatment; “and the expense of conveying such lunatic to the asylum shall be audited and paid out of the fund appropriated for the payment of criminal costs, but the expenses at the asylum for his board and clothing shall be paid as now provided by law in cases of the insane poor; provided, if such person shall have property, the costs shall be paid out of Ms property, by his guardian.”

We may assume that this person had no property and therefore the cost of keeping Mm at the asylum is [73]*73to “be paid as now provided by law in eases of the insane poor.”

Plaintiff next points to section 4867 which provides that: ‘ ‘ The several county courts shall have power to send to the asylum such of their insane poor as may be entitled to admission thereto.” And it specifies that the county shall pay for the support and maintenance of such insane poor persons as the. county court may send to the asylum.

Under that section, however, even the county court is not authorized by its arbitrary will or unlimited discretion to send any insane poor person it may select to the asylum at the expense of the county, but the court must hold due proceedings upon a petition filed showing that the insane poor person is “a citizen residing in the county” and other essential facts as prescribed by the statute, and there must be a trial of the facts and a judgment of the court thereupon. [Secs. 4874 to. 4878, inclusive.] The county court has no authority under those statutes to send a person to the asylum or maintain one’there at the expense of the county who is not a resident thereof.

Section 4883 authorizes thé county court to certify to the superintendent of the asylum that a pay patient already in the asylum has not sufficient estate to support him there, and when that is done he becomes a county patient, and the county is chargeable with the cost of his keeping.

Then sections 4885 and 4887 make provision for another case, that is, when a person is tried for a criminal offense and acquitted on the ground that he was insane and he remains in that condition, the court is to order him to be kept in custody ‘ ‘ at the expense of the proper county, until the county court shall cause him to be removed to the asylum, as in cases of insane poor persons.” The Statute then directs that the county court shall proceed in the matter as directed in sections 4874 and following, except that it is not to enter on the [74]*74inquiry as to insanity, that fact having already been adjudged by the circuit court.

The sections above referred to contain the only provisions to be found in our statutes expressly authorizing the cost of keeping a patient in the asylum to be charged to a county and in each of those cases it requires that the person be a resident of the county and that the county court should take the prescribed action in the premises.

Where, as in State ex rel. v. Cole County Court, 80 Mo. 80, all the facts within the purview of sections 4885 and 4887, above mentioned, appear as matters of record, the county court will be required by mandamus to make the necessary orders to place the person in the asylum at the expense of the county. In that case the county court had previously taken such action under section 4140, Revised Statutes 1879 (now sec. 4883, R. S. 1899) as was therein authorized to make the person in question a county patient. This court per Norton, J., there said: “We think it apparent from the above statutory provisions and the general law regulating asylums (2 R. S. 1879, p. 818) that it was the intention of the Legislature to cast the burden of supporting the insane poor upon each county where such insane poor have acquired a residence or settlement, and that when an insane person is sent from a county and is discharged from the asylum, he shall be deemed to he the county patient of such county for twelve months after such discharge, the language of the statute being that every patient in the. asylum shall be deemed to be the county patient of the county first sending him till one year after his regular discharge.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 S.W. 999, 175 Mo. 68, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-macon-county-mo-1903.