Commonwealth v. Duncan ( 1968 )

Per Curiam.

The Department of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals brought this action against David Clyde Bedsaul’s Committee under Code § 37-125.5 (Supp. 1966)^* to recover expenses incident to'Bedsaul’s hospitalization at Southwestern State Hospital. The Circuit Court of Carroll County entered judgment for the Department, “subject to a total estate exemption of $2500.00”. The sole issue on this appeal is whether an estate exemption is applicable to an action under Code § 37-125.5.

Although Code § 37-125.5 contained no provision for an estate exemption, the Committee contended that the exemption provided for under Code § 37-128 (Supp. 1966) applied to a judgment under Code § 37-125.5.

Code .§ 37-128, which permitted the department to recover the expenses of boarding a patient with a private family, provided that the patient’s estate should not be depleted below $2,500. The last sentence of Code § 37-128 provided: “The provisions of [§§ 37-125.1-125.15] shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to collections authorized by this section [ § 37-128].”

The last sentence of Code § 37-128 did not make the provisions of that section applicable to actions under Code § 37-125.5; rather, that sentence made the provisions of Code §§ 37-125.1-125.15 applicable mutatis mutandis to actions under Code § 37-128. The trial court therefore erred in holding that the estate exemption applied to this action under Code § 37-125.5. The judgment is modified accordingly.

Modified, affirmed, and final judgment.

* In 1968 the General Assembly repealed Title 37 of the Code and enacted Title 37.1 in lieu thereof. Va. Acts of Assembly 1968, ch. 477.