Town of Washington v. Town of Warren

• Decision Date: 27 July 1937
• Citation: 193 A. 751,123 Conn. 268
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: TOWN OF WASHINGTON v. TOWN OF WARREN.

193 A. 751

123 Conn. 268

TOWN OF WASHINGTON v. TOWN OF WARREN.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 27, 1937

Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Litchfield County; Thomas J Molloy, Acting Judge.

Action by the Town of Washington against the Town of Warren, for reimbursement for the support of a pauper, brought to the court of common pleas for Litchfield county, where, after hearing the parties filed a stipulation that owing to the death of Hon. Elbert B. Hamlin, judge, the transcript of testimony, the pleadings, and the briefs be submitted to the judgment of Hon. Thomas J. Molloy, judge of the court of common pleas for Hartford county. Judgment for the defendant and the plaintiff appeals.

Error and cause remanded with direction.

Thomas J. Wall, Thomas F. Wall, and Robert A. Wall, all of Torrington, for appellant.

William M. Foord, of Litchfield, for appellee.

Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and HINMAN, BANKS, AVERY, and BROWN, JJ.

BANKS Judge.

The plaintiff town is seeking to recover the amount expended by it for the support of a pauper, Orlo Cooke, alleging that he belongs to the defendant town, and that the latter is obligated to support him under General Statutes, § 1693, which provides that " each town shall maintain and support all the poor inhabitants belonging to it, whether residing in it or in any other town in the state." One " belongs" in a town in which he has acquired a legal settlement. Town of Reading v. Westport, 19 Conn. 561, 564. The sole question here involved is whether Orlo's legal settlement is in the town of Washington or that of Warren.

He was born in Kent, April 22, 1909. His parents moved from Kent to Warren in March, 1910, where they lived together until June, 1914. During that period they received no aid from the town. Consequently his father, having maintained himself and his family four years continuously in Warren without becoming chargeable to it, acquired a legal settlement there. General Statutes, § 1686. On June 22, 1914, the father, Charles Cooke, deserted his family, and they have not seen or heard from him since January or February, 1915. In April, 1922, his wife, Maude, secured a divorce from him, and was granted the custody of their son Orlo. After her husband's desertion, Maude Cooke was unable to support herself and her family, and received pauper aid from the town of Warren. On September 15, 1914, upon the application of the selectmen of Warren, the court of probate committed Orlo to the Gilbert Home, at Winsted. In June, 1925, having reached the age of sixteen, he was discharged from the Gilbert Home and went to his mother, who was then living in Washington. In September of that year he went with his mother to Philadelphia, where he lived until September, 1927, when they both returned to Washington. He lived there, boarding with his brother, until January, 1929, when he returned to Philadelphia for medical treatment and came back to Washington in December, 1930, and lived there part of the time with his brother and part with his mother until October, 1932, when he applied for and received aid from the town of Washington. He became of age on April 22, 1930.

It is not claimed by either party that Orlo acquired a legal settlement in either the plaintiff or the defendant town in his own right. His father had acquired a legal settlement in Warren in 1914; Orlo was then five years old and his legal settlement, and that Warren is the town where he " belongs." The defendant contends that upon her abandonment by her husband. Orlo's mother became the head of the family and could acquire a settlement in her own right which would become the settlement of her minor children; that she did acquire such settlement in Washington, which became the legal settlement of Orlo; and that is the town where he " belongs." Assuming that, as claimed by the defendant, Mrs. Cooke, after her abandonment by her husband, became the head of the family, and could acquire a settlement in her own right, which would become the settlement of her minor children, two questions are presented upon this appeal: First, did she acquire such a settlement in her own right in the town of Washington; and, second, if she acquired such settlement, did it become, by derivation, the settlement of her son Orlo?

Except under circumstances not here present, no inhabitant of any town in this state can gain a legal settlement in any other town, under the provisions of section 1686 of the General Statutes, " unless he shall have resided *** four years continuously in such town, and shall have maintained himself and family during the whole of said period without becoming chargeable to such town." We have held that to acquire a settlement under this statute " the residence must be the fixed, permanent, established residence or home, as distinguished from that which is transient merely." Town of Salem v. Lyme, 29 Conn. 74, 80; Town of Madison v. Guilford, 85 Conn. 55, 59, 81 A. 1046; Chaplin v. Bloomfield, 92 Conn. 395, 397, 103 A. 118; Town of Newtown v. Southbury, 100 Conn. 251, 253, 123 A. 278.

The trial court has found in detail the facts as to Maude Cooke's life after her husband deserted her in 1914. She continued to live in Warren until February 1916. Thereafter she supported herself as a domestic or nurse, finding employment in various places, and carrying her belongings with her in suitcases as she moved from place to place on account of her employment. She first went to Washington, where she stayed from February, 1916, to July, 1917. Thereafter she lived for varying periods in Springfield, Warren, Washington, Torrington, Hartford, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City, remaining no more than two years in any one place prior to September, 1927. At that time she returned to Washington and remained there until Orlo applied for aid in October, 1932. Prior to her return to Washington in 1927, Mrs. Cooke had returned there from other places where she had been employed on five different occasions, remaining there each time for periods ranging from one month to a year and eight months. She had lived for longer consecutive periods in Hartford and Philadelphia. Except for two short periods when she stayed with her sister, she lived while in Washington in the...