Town of Brighton v. Town of Charleston
| Decision Date | 14 November 1945 |
| Parties | TOWN OF BRIGHTON v. TOWN OF CHARLESTON |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
February Term, 1945.[*]
Process in Proceeding under P. L. 5455.
1. The function of relieving the poor is properly governmental in its character.
2. The State, as parens patriae, is authorized to legislate for the protection, care, custody and maintenance of children within its jurisdiction.
3. A town has no vested right to be relieved from the charge of supporting any particular pauper.
4. No right, as against a state, to the equal protection of the laws is secured to its municipal corporations by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which can limit in any way legislation to charge them with public obligations.
5. Under P. L. 5447 the juvenile court cannot proceed to issue a summons until fifteen days after the required notice has been received by the state probation officer, unless that officer waives such notice.
6. Although the commissioner of public welfare is ex officio state probation officer, the notice required by P. L. 5447 must be given to him as state probation officer or to a person authorized to receive it for him, and not to the department of public welfare.
7. It is the clear intent of No. 7 of the Acts of 1923 that the duties of the state probation officer shall be exercised by the commissioner personally as state probation officer, or through his authorized representative, rather than by the department of public welfare as such.
8. A construction of a statute which will lead to an absurd result and will tend to defeat the reason and spirit of the law although it may be in accordance with the literal sense of the words used, is to be avoided.
9. As in the case of other public officials, the state probation officer may, in the absence of statutory prohibition, express or implied, delegate the performance of ministerial duties to others.
10. The investigation and report concerning dependent and neglected children is ministerial in character, for it involves no discretion, but only the ascertainment of the circumstances and conveyance of the information received to the court, so that the court may decide whether a summons should be issued.
11. Held, that the state probation officer may delegate the investigation and report concerning dependent and neglected children to a competent representative of the department of public welfare.
12. If there is repugnancy between two statutes enacted at different times, the later statute will prevail as being a later expression of the legislative will.
13. Municipal courts are courts of general jurisdiction and every presumption that is not inconsistent with the record is to be indulged in favor of their jurisdiction.
14. When acting as a juvenile court a municipal court is exercising special and limited statutory powers not according to the course of the common law; and in such case the facts necessary to confer jurisdiction must affirmatively appear from the record, and the exercise of jurisdiction does not imply a previous ascertainment of those facts.
15. The statute requiring liberal construction of statute relating to dependent or delinquent children is to be in favor of child's welfare so that his care, custody and discipline shall approximate that which should be given by his parents and that his restraint when delinquent shall tend rather toward his reformation than punishment, but it does not dispense with record showing all facts necessary to confer jurisdiction on the court in proceedings thereunder.
16. If the citation under P. L. 5455 is not signed by the judge or the clerk it is fatally defective.
17. Knowledge of the pendency of an action is not the same as legal notice, for to constitute such notice the knowledge must be communicated in the prescribed way.
18. Mere presence at a hearing does not constitute an appearance.
19. Where the record shows a void service of process, a recital in the judgment that due notice was given does not give rise in a collateral proceeding to a presumption of another service of the process.
20. Acceptance of service minuted upon a citation means that the signers thereof admit the service with the same effect it would have if made upon each of them by an officer, and nothing more.
21. The Supreme Court, may, in its discretion, when it is satisfied that an injustice can be avoided by further proceedings in the lower court, remand for further proceedings, rather than enter final judgment.
ACTION under P. L. 5455, to recover share of expense of department of public welfare for care of children committed to it by municipal court acting as juvenile court, which had been paid by plaintiff. Essex County Court, October Term, 1944, Hughes, J., presiding. Trial was by court and resulted in judgment for the plaintiff.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.
Raymond L. Miles for the defendant.
Arthur L. Graves for the plaintiff.
Present: MOULTON, C. J., SHERBURNE, BUTTLES, STURTEVANT and JEFFORDS, JJ.
This action is brought under the provisions of P. L. 5455 to recover the share of the expense of the department of public welfare for the care and maintenance of the seven children of Earl G. Dugan, committed to it by the Essex municipal court acting as a juvenile court, which has been paid by the plaintiff. The declaration alleges that such children were found in plaintiff town and were residents of defendant town. In its answer the defendant pleaded general and special denials and two pleas in bar. The plaintiff joined issue upon the pleas in denial and demurred severally to the pleas in bar. The demurrers were sustained. After a trial findings of fact were filed and judgment was entered for the plaintiff.
The determination of the questions presented involves the following sections in Chapter 226 of the Public Laws:
Sec. 5444 defines a dependent child or neglected child.
Sec. 5445, No. 135 of the Acts of 1937, gives jurisdiction of juvenile cases to the municipal courts in counties where there are such courts, and terms such courts juvenile courts while so acting. It provides that the state's attorney shall appear and present such cases, and that "The proceedings and orders of the court in all examinations and trials of such cases shall be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose and shall be known as the juvenile record."
Sec. 5446 provides for filing with the court a petition by a person who has knowledge of a dependent or neglected child, or by the commissioner of public welfare or his deputy.
Sec. 5447, No. 133 of the Acts of 1939, reads:
"Upon the filing of such petition the court, before any further proceeding is had in the case, shall give fifteen days' notice thereof to the state probation officer who shall immediately inquire into and make a full examination of the parentage and surroundings of the child and all the facts and circumstances of the case and report the same to the court; and if after such investigation, it appears to the court that the public interest and the interest of the child will be best subserved thereby, a summons shall issue requiring the person having the custody or control of the child, or with whom the child may be, to appear with the child at a time and place which shall be stated in the summons; but such summons may be issued before such an investigation is completed; and if such person is other than the parent or guardian of such child, such parent or guardian shall be notified of the pendency of the case;..."
Sec. 5450 reads:
"On the return of the summons or other process, or as soon thereafter as may be, the court shall proceed to hear and dispose of the case in a summary manner."
Sec. 5453 reads:
"The state probation officer, at the request of the court, shall investigate cases after issue of summons or warrant."
Sec. 5454, so far as material, reads:
"When a child is found to be dependent or neglected within the meaning of this chapter, the court may make an order committing the child to the care of the department of public welfare,... or commit the child to the care and custody of the state probation officer under such conditions as may be specified in the order of the court."
Sec. 5455 reads:
Sec. 5467 reads:
"When the court finds a child neglected, dependent or delinquent, it may, in the same or subsequent proceedings, upon the summoning or voluntary appearance of the parents of the child, proceed to inquire into the ability of the parents to support the child or contribute thereto, and if the court finds the parents able to support the child or contribute thereto, the court may make such order or enter such judgment as shall be equitable in the premises, and may enforce the same by execution or in any way in which a court of equity may enforce its orders and decrees...."
The pleas in bar allege that the judgment of the municipal court was void as to the defendant because that court lacked jurisdiction of the defendant, no process nor...
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