Wayne County v. State Dept. of Social Welfare

• Decision Date: 03 October 1955
• Docket Number: 73,Nos. 72,s. 72
• Citation: 72 N.W.2d 200,343 Mich. 475
• Parties: The COUNTY of WAYNE, a municipal corporation and corporate body politic, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE, State of Michigan, The Michigan Social Welfare Commission, The Department of Mental Health, and The Commission of Mental Health, a body corporate, Defendants and Appellees.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 200

72 N.W.2d 200

343 Mich. 475

The COUNTY of WAYNE, a municipal corporation and corporate

body politic, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE, State of Michigan, The

Michigan Social Welfare Commission, The Department of Mental

Health, and The Commission of Mental Health, a body

corporate, Defendants and Appellees.

Nos. 72, 73.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Oct. 3, 1955.

Gerald K. O'Brien, Pros. Atty., Hobart Taylor, Jr., Philip A. McHugh and Aloysius J. Suchy, Asst. Pros. Attys., By: Aloysius J. Suchy, Asst. Pros. Atty., Detroit, for appellant.

Thomas M. Kavanagh, Atty. Gen., Edmund E. Shepherd, Sol. Gen., Lansing, Russell A. Searl, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellees.

Before the Entire Bench.

DETHMERS, Justice.

Suit was brought in the court of claims to recover a sum representing the difference between the alleged actual cost to plaintiff for care of mentally ill patients at Wayne county hospital at Eloise and the amount the State has paid plaintiff therefor.

Commitments of such patients to Eloise, if residents of Wayne county, are permitted under authority of C.L.1948, § 330.59, Stat.Ann.1953 Cum.Supp. § 14.848, which provides in part:

'Sec. 49. * * * and the state shall pay to said Wayne county insane asylum at Eloise the cost of the support and maintenance of all public charges so admitted while under treatment in said county asylum * * *: Provided, That the costs of said support and maintenance for the biennial period ending June 30, 1947, for the care of state patients in Eloise shall be made at the rate of $2.35 per patient day: Provided further, That should the costs of care to the county of Wayne prove to be less than $2.35 per patient day, then the payments shall be made on the basis of cost.'

The general provisions of this section permitting commitment of Wayne residents to Eloise first came into Michigan statutory law by P.A.1903, No. 217, § 54, which contained the proviso:

'That the cost of said support and maintenance shall not exceed the per capita amount expended by the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the care of State patients.'

P.A.1923, No. 151, § 49, superseded section 54 of the 1903 act, substituting as the limit upon the cost of such support the cost of supporting State patients at the Pontiac State Hospital. Section 49 was amended by P.A.1937, No. 104, to raise the limit to not to exceed 20% in excess of such cost at the Ypsilanti State Hospital. This, in turn, was amended by P.A.1944, Ex.Sess., No. 42, to increase the limit to not to exceed 40% in excess of the costs of supporting State patients at certain State hospitals. By P.A.1945, No. 235, the limitation of section 49 was amended to substitute the $2.35 per patient day limitation first above set forth. The latter proviso, or limitation, was reenacted in P.A.1946, 2d Ex.Sess., No. 4, and P.A.1947, No. 108. The same 1947 session of the legislature, which by Act 108 again provided that the $2.35 per patient day limit should apply to the biennial period ending June 30, 1947, likewise enacted Act 306 which appropriated for the ensuing fiscal year beginning July 1, 1947, for care of State patients at Eloise, at the express rate of $2.90 per patient day. There followed P.A.1948, Ex.Sess., No. 23; P.A.1949, No. 301; P.A.1950, Ex.Sess., No. 32; P.A.1951, No. 272; P.A.1952, No. 255; and P.A.1953, No. 228, each appropriating for the ensuing fiscal year for the care of State patients at Eloise at rates increasing from year to year from $3.27 per patient day in the 1948 act to $4.15 per patient day in the 1953 act. Since June 30, 1947, the State has paid plaintiff for the care of such patients at Eloise at the rates prescribed in the mentioned appropriating acts. Plaintiff says that the actual cost to it for such care since that date has exceeded such payments and sues for the difference. From orders dismissing plaintiff's petitions and statements of claim therefor, plaintiff appeals here.

Plaintiff contends that the limits on the amount to be paid by the State to plaintiff for the care of such patients at Eloise, expressed in section 49, as amended from time to time, finally expired on June 30, 1947, and that thereafter the section must be read to require payment by the State to plaintiff of the full cost of such care without limitation thereon.

Defendants point to the fact that in the very session in which the legislature by P.A.1947, No. 108, reenacted the limit of $2.35 per patient day for the biennial period ending June 30, 1947, it at the same time adopted Act 306, appropriating for such care at the rate of $2.90 per patient day. Defendants contend that this discloses a legislative intent to continue a limitation, at...