Inhabitants of Solon v. Inhabitants of Embden
Inhabitants of Solon v. Inhabitants of Embden
Opinion of the Court
The pauper whose settlement is here in dispute, was born and brought up in the defendant town, and lived there constantly, on the farm formerly owned by his father, and after-wards by his brother, until he was about sixty years old. His testimony shows that though always disabled from performing much work through defective eyesight, he is more intelligent than paupers ordinarily are, and quite capable of entertaining lively sentiments and fixed purposes. Among these, he seems to have cherished a strong attachment to his birth place, and a determination not to acquire a pauper settlement elsewhere.
The question was one of fact, for the jury. Fitchburg v. Winchendon, 4 Cush. 190, 194.
The defendants strongly urge that the fact that the pauper held. Rice’s note for $100 -which, according to an agreement between them, was to be paid by Rice in boarding the pauper, taken in connection with the further fact, that in a little more than three-months after his removal to Anson, ho did return to Rice’s, and remained there a year, before receiving the supplies here sued for, is conclusive that the removal was but a pretence, to save talk and ill feeling among the people of Solon, and that he never really abandoned his home there.
But it must be remembered, that the only man who really-knows what his intention in making the removal was, is the pauper himself; and he testified positively to an abandonment of his home at Rice’s, when he removed to Anson. He is fortified, by his evident determination not to live long enough anywhere-out of Embden, to gain a settlement, and by his persistent efforts-during a large part of the time while he was living at Rice’s to-find another home, in Embden or elsewhere; and the argument of the defendants is weakened by testimony indicating that the-return to Rice’s was brought about by the advice and interference-of one of their own town officers.
The fact that there was still a small sum due the pauper from Nice, when the supplies were furnished, is not conclusive that the verdict was against evidence upon the question of necessity. Horridgewock v. Solon, 49 Maine, 385.
Motion overruled.
Reference
- Status
- Published