Thomas v. Macon County
| Decision Date | 27 May 1903 |
| Citation | 175 Mo. 68,74 S.W. 999 |
| Parties | THOMAS, Treasurer, v. MACON COUNTY. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
1. Rev. St. 1899, § 4867, confers on the county courts power to send their insane poor to the asylum, and makes their support a charge on the county. Sections 4874-4878 provide for the necessary proceedings, and that they are to be on a petition showing that the insane poor person is a citizen residing in the county; and section 4883 authorizes the county court to certify that a patient in the asylum is without means, and that the county shall then be chargeable with his maintenance. Sections 4885 and 4887 provide for the removal to the asylum of a person acquitted of an offense under the direction of the county court, as in the case of insane persons. Section 2666 authorizes the Governor to have an insane convict removed to the asylum, and specifies that the expenses of such convict shall be paid as in case of an insane poor. Held, that the expenses for the maintenance of an insane convict at an asylum are chargeable to a county only in case he was a resident thereof at the time of conviction.
2. The fact that a person was indicted, convicted, and sentenced for a crime by the court of a county is not prima facie proof that the person convicted was a resident of the county.
3. In proving that an insane convict was a resident of the county in which he was convicted it is immaterial that the indictment used the words, "late of the county aforesaid," as that was merely following an ancient form.
4. In a proceeding to collect from a county for the support of an insane convict confined in an asylum, it was competent for the county to show that the person named in the indictment under which the insane person was convicted was not a resident of the county.
5. Where, in an action by the treasurer of an asylum to collect from a county for the support of an insane convict, plaintiff had attempted to prove the convict's residence in the county by the fact that he was convicted in the court thereof, the statement of the convict at the time of the trial that he was a tramp was admissible as a part of the res gestæ.
6. Where, in an action to recover from a county for the support of an insane convict, the asked instructions were based on the theory that the indictment, trial, and conviction were sufficient to raise the presumption that the convict was a resident of the county, they were properly refused.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Macon County; Nat. M. Shelton, Judge.
Action by W. D. Thomas, treasurer, against Macon county. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
B. E. Guthrie and T. A. Boulware, for appellant. Ben Franklin and R. G. Mitchell, for respondent.
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, designing 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, 4873, Rev. St. 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, and keeping him 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 sections 2666, Rev. St. 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, Rev. St. 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 "may by his warrant to the sheriff of the proper county or the warden of the penitentiary" cause him 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 his property by his guardian." We may assume that this person had no property, and therefore the cost of keeping him at the asylum is to "be paid as now provided by law in cases 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. Sections 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 the 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...
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