Brooks v. Hastings

Citations

• 192 Pa. 378
• 43 A. 1075
• 1899 Pa. LEXIS 928

Syllabus

<p>Soldiers' homes—Pensions—Voluntary payment—Acts- of June 3, 1885, and May 4, 1893.</p> <p>The rule prescribed for admission to the soldiers’ and sailors’ home established by the Act of June 3, 1885, P. L. 62, as amended by the Act of May 4,1893, P. L. 30, that a member of the home who is a pensioner shall pay over to officers of the home half the amount which he draws in excess of $4.00, is not in conflict with the act of congress of February 28, 1883, making void certain pledges, assignments, etc., of pensions.</p> <p>The Act of June 3,1885, P. L. 62, as amended by the Act of May 4,1893, P. L. 30, establishing a soldiers’ and sailors’ home, and by section 7 conferring on the commission in charge “ powers to adopt rules and regulations for its management and government, .... and to formulate rules for the admission of disabled and indigent soldiers not inconsistent with the preceding section,” though not prescribing as a qualification for admission of pensioners that they pay part of their pension money to the home, yet not prohibiting it as such, allows the board to prescribe a rule making such payment such a condition.</p> <p>A rule making it a condition of admission to a soldiers’ and sailors’ home that an applicant shall pay part of his pension to the home does not contravene the constitutional prohibitions against taking the property of citizens without due process of law and without just compensation.</p> <p>Where an applicant for admission to a soldiers’ home signs an agreement to obey the regulations of the home, and before signing there is read over to him a regulation that pensioners shall pay over to the home a certain proportion of their pension money, and after admission to the home he voluntarily pays over the portion of his pension money described by the regulations, he cannot recover such payment from the home. The regulation in question is not an unreasonable one, and does notviolate that provision of the state and federal constitutions which pro