Cherrington v. Board of Com'rs of Otero County, 12828.

• Citation: 89 Colo. 116,299 P. 711
• Decision Date: 18 May 1931
• Docket Number: 12828.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court
• Parties: CHERRINGTON v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF OTERO COUNTY.

299 P. 711

89 Colo. 116

CHERRINGTON v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF OTERO COUNTY.

No. 12828.

Supreme Court of Colorado

May 18, 1931

Rehearing Denied June 1, 1931.

In Department.

Error to Otero County Court; E. C. Glenn, Judge.

Action by the Board of County Commissioners of Otero County Colorado, against Virginia Cherrington. To review the judgment, defendant brings error.

Affirmed.

John A. Martin, of Pueblo, for plaintiff in error.

Perry E. Williams, of Rocky Ford, for defendant in error.

MOORE J.

The board of county commissioners of Otero county sued Virginia Cherrington, a minor, to recover $1,306.75 for hospital surgical, and medical treatment given her as an adjudged indigent minor of Otero county beginning November, 1921, and ending May, 1923. The plaintiff attached $877.80 defendant's interest as one of the heirs of the estate of Eldert V. Dusenberry, deceased, administered in Otero county. Upon a trial to the court, the attachment was sustained and judgment entered for plaintiff in the sum of $877.80, to review which defendant prosecutes this writ, contending that the treatment of defendant was not authorized by statute, not necessary to the health of defendant, and the claim is barred by the statute of limitation, section 6392, C. L. of 1921.

A stipulation of the facts between the parties recites that on or about November 14, 1921, defendant, being then one year of age and a resident of Otero county, upon petition of her mother was duly committed by order of the county court of Otero county to the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children at Denver; that at said hearing the mother and child were found to be indigent; that defendant was refused admission to the state home because she was suffering from a harelip; that the child was returned to the plaintiff and at its direction, upon recommendation of the superintendent of the state home, operated upon at the Children's Hospital in Denver; that the operation successfully removed said harelip disability, and the child was thereafter legally adopted by Albert Spring and Hattie Spring, of Yuma county, during the year 1925; that it was less expensive to plaintiff board to provide surgery than to attempt to privately maintain said child during her minority that the plaintiff authorized the necessary surgery for defendant and assumed responsibility for the expense thereof; that the amount sued for was paid by plaintiff on behalf of defendant; that said defendant is one of the heirs of the estate of Eldert V. Dusenberry, deceased, whose estate has been probated in the county court in Otero county; and that as such heir she inherited the sum of $877.80, which is being held by the county court pending the outcome of this action.

Defendant claims that the surgical treatment of defendant was not authorized by section 8907, C. L. of 1921 which provides 'When any such poor person shall not have any such relations in any county in this state, as are named in the preceding sections, or such relation is not of sufficient ability or shall fail or refuse to maintain such pauper, then the said pauper shall receive such relief as his or her case may require, out of the county treasury, in the manner hereinafter provided; if at any time the said pauper, or the person liable for the support of such pauper, as in this chapter provided, shall acquire or come into possession of property, moneys or credits in his or her own right, he or she shall be answerable to such county for the expenses of furnishing such relief; the amount thereof to be fixed by resolution of the board of commissioners of said county, and collected by suit in any c...