Turbett Township Overseers of Poor v. Port Royal Borough Overseers of Poor

Citations

• 33 Pa. Super. 520
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 329

Syllabus

<p>Poor laws — Settlement—Widow—“ Unmarried person not having a child” — Service.</p> <p>Where a widow whose husband has been dead for ten years and whose only child, a daughter, has been married and living with her husband for ten years, hires and serves in a poor district for eight years, she thereby gains a settlement, as an “unmarried person not having a child.”</p> <p>The Act of June 13, 1836, sec. 9, par. 5, P. L. 539, providing the method by which a settlement may be acquired “by any unmarried person, not having a child,” is to be construed as the similar English statute was construed to the effect that if such person has no child that can be a burden to the parish in consequence of his acquiring a settlement there, he shall be considered as not having a child within the meaning of the statute.</p> <p>Statutes — C onstruction.</p> <p>The effects and consequences of the proposed construction of a law, as well as its reason and spirit, will be looked into in determining the legislative intent, which is the criterion by which all acts must be construed. Hence, if there is room for cons'truction, the court will prefer that construction which is most consonant with the purpose for which the act was passed.</p>