Commissioners of the Rouse Estate v. Directors of Poor of McKean County Poor District

Citations

• 169 Pa. 116
• 37 W.N.C. 29
• 32 A. 541
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1079

Syllabus

<p>Poor Laws — Settlement—Petition and answer — Citizenship,</p> <p>In a proceeding by one poor district against another to recover money expended in the care oí a pauper, where the petition states that the pauper’s wife was possessed of an estate in fee simple in the respondent poor district, and that the husband resided thereon with his family, and thereby gained a settlement in said district, it is obvious that the petitioners mean that the settlement was gained because the pauper was a tenant by the curtesy initiate of his wife’s land, or that he had a statutory interest under the act of 1855, and it is in substance an averment of citizenship. If he had no such estate because of alienage, it was incumbent upon the respondents to so aver in their answer; and if they do not do so, the court is warranted in assuming the pauper’s citizenship without passing upon the question as to whether, as a general rule, it will be presumed or must be made affirmatively to appear.</p> <p>Poor laws — Jurisdiction of court of quarter sessions — Act of 1893.</p> <p>In such case the court of quarter sessions of the county wherein the last legal settlement is alleged to be has jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute.</p> <p>The act of June 8, 1893, P. L. 345, which provides “that the several courts of common pleas within their several counties have the power to issue writs of mandamus to all officers and magistrates elected or appointed within their respective counties,” does not take from the court of quarter sessions the power to make or enforce orders under the poor laws, plainly conferred upon it by the 23d section of the act of 1833.</p> <p>Estate by the curtesy — Statutes o/1848, 1850, 1855, 1863 and 1867.</p> <p>An estate by the curtesy has not been annihilated by the statutes of April 11,1848, P. L. 536, sec.10; April 22, 1850, P. L. 553, sec. 20; May 4, 1855, P. L. 430; April 1, 1863, P. L. 212, and April 3, 1887, P. L. 332, nor by the decisions interpreting them; but it stil