McCracken's Case

Citations

• 45 Pa. Super. 229
• 1911 Pa. Super. LEXIS 28

Syllabus

<p>Lunacy — Lunacy proceedings — Costs — Probable cause — Acts of June IS, 1836, P. L. 689, and April 16,1849, P. L. 668.</p> <p>1. The Act of April 16,1849, P. L. 663, imposed on the court of common pleas the duty of deciding and directing who shall pay all costs attendant upon the issuing and execution of any commission in lunacy or to apportion the costs and the payment of them among the parties interested in such proportions as the justice of the case may require and to order and decree payment accordingly. In exercising this power it is not important that the records show that there was probable cause for the proceeding.</p> <p>2. Section 9 of the Act of June 13, 1836, P. L. 589, 595, relating to the imposition of costs upon the person who institutes a lunacy proceeding applies only where there has not only been a finding that the subject of inquiry was not a lunatic but where the judge or commissioner holding the inquisition certifies that the proceeding was instituted without probable cause. • In the absence of such certificate the presumption is that the proceeding was begun in good faith and in the interest of the alleged lunatic.</p> <p>3. If an inquisition has been found before the death of a person alleged to be a lunatic the jurisdiction of the court of common pleas attaches, and it may make such orders as are necessary or expedient in the disposition of the case as in the matter of fixing the compensation of the commissioner and decreeing the payment of costs, and the costs may be imposed on the estate before the final determination of the proceeding.</p> <p>4. Counsel fees are properly allowable to a person who in good faith institutes proceedings in lunacy.</p> <p>5. An appeal from an order fixing the compensation for a commissioner in lunacy and decreeing the payment of costs in lunacy proceedings will not be reversed where the testimony is not printed and the appellate court is without means of determining the reasonableness of the charges.</p> <p>