Opinion
Opinion filed January 2, 1935.
Paupers — P.L. 3923 — Voluntary Aid for Pauper Not Recoverable from Town — Rules Governing Pauper Matters.
1. Hospital caring for poor persons who were residents of city in which hospital was located could not recover therefor under P.L. 3923, placing duty upon overseer of poor to relieve such persons when application for assistance is made, but could have recovered under P.L. 3926, relating to care of transients.
2. One who voluntarily aids pauper is without remedy against town.
3. There are no equities in pauper matters, but they are regulated by arbitrary rules laid down by statutes.
ACTION OF CONTRACT under P.L. 3923 against city by hospital. Plea, general issue. Trial by court on agreed statement of facts at the April Term, 1934, Franklin County, Sherman, J., presiding. Judgment for the defendant. The plaintiff excepted. The opinion states the case. Affirmed.
J.W. Redmond and Horace H. Powers for the plaintiff.
Jay Chaffee, City attorney of St. Albans for the defendant.
Present: POWERS, C.J., SLACK, MOULTON, THOMPSON, and SHERBURNE, JJ.
This is a companion to the case of the same title, 107 Vt. 59, 176 A. 302. It differs from that case in these respects: The persons relieved by the plaintiff were poor persons and residents of the defendant city; the complaint is brought under P.L. 3923; and the amount claimed is $11.15.
It is plain enough from what we said in the other case, that a recovery could have been had therein for the services and expenses here sued for. But the plaintiff chose to proceed upon the statute above referred to, under which there can be no recovery, for the simple reason that that statute does not provide a remedy by suit.
One who voluntarily aids a pauper is without a remedy against the town. Churchill v. West Fairlee, 17 Vt. 447; Chelsea v. Washington, 48 Vt. 610, 614. There are no equities in pauper matters. They are regulated by arbitrary rules. Waitsfield v. Craftsbury, 87 Vt. 406, 408, 89 A. 466, Ann. Cas. 1916C, 387.
Judgment affirmed.