Central Kentucky Asylum v. Penick

• Decision Date: 07 January 1898
• Citation: 102 Ky. 533,44 S.W. 92
• Parties: CENTRAL KENTUCKY ASYLUM v. PENICK.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

44 S.W. 92

102 Ky. 533

CENTRAL KENTUCKY ASYLUM v. PENICK.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

January 7, 1898

Appeal from circuit court, Green county.

"To be officially reported."

Action by Central Kentucky Asylum against B. W. Penick, committee to recover board. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Henry &amp Woodward, for appellant.

B. W Penick, for appellee.

HAZELRIGG J.

The statute providing for the collection of board for the keep of patients committed to insane asylums reads as follows "When patients who have been or may be supported in either of said asylums, have or shall acquire estate which can be subjected to debt, the board of commissioners of such asylum, when reliably informed of the fact, is authorized and directed, in every such case, to sue for, in the name of the asylum, and recover the amount of such patient's board at the rate of two hundred dollars per year, or so much thereof as such estate will suffice to pay for the time they shall have been respectively kept and maintained therein, and not otherwise paid for, and by proper proceedings to subject their estate, respectively, to the payment thereof. *** The net sum realized in such suits shall be paid over to the state auditor," etc. Ky. St. § 257. In this suit by the appellant, Central Asylum, against the appellee, as the committee of one W. W. Anderson, for the board of the latter, it is averred, in substance, that Anderson in August, 1893, was found to be of unsound mind, and a lunatic, after due inquest had by a jury of Green county, and, under proper orders of a court having jurisdiction, was placed in the appellant's care, where he has since been confined and boarded. The amount of board due, at the rate of $200 per year, is set out, and it is alleged that no part of it has ever been paid. It is alleged, further, that the appellee is the regularly appointed committee for Anderson, and that "Anderson has estate which can be subjected to said debt," of which fact the board of commissioners of the asylum, it is averred, "has been reliably informed." By an amended petition, it is further alleged that the defendant, Penick, as committee of said Anderson, "has ample and sufficient means and assets in his hands to pay off the debt sued on." The trial court sustained a demurrer to the petition as amended, and dismissed the proceeding. It may be admitted that the pleadings of the appellant are indefinite and...