Citation Numbers: 133 Me. 345
Judges: Barnes, Dunn, Hudson, Pattangall, Sturgis, Thaxter
Filed Date: 3/15/1935
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
This action, which is before us on the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial after a verdict for the defendant, was brought to recover for alleged pauper supplies furnished by the Town of Bar Harbor to one Dan Groves, whose derivative settle
It is conceded that fuel and groceries valued at $26.16 were furnished by the plaintiff town to the family of Groves on four separate occasions during the year 1928. The defendant claims that these were not pauper supplies, and in support of such contention relies on a letter written by Groves to the overseers of the poor of Bar Harbor of the following tenor:
“Feb. 21, 1928
Dear Mrs:
Please give Abbie two foot of wood if she needs it and also Five Dollars worth of provisions if needed until the middle of next week and when I get my pay from my work I will send it to you. The boss don’t come in very often. He lives fifteen miles from here. Answer as soon as you get this if you can or not and if you can’t I will have to come home and go on the town and I don’t want to. I will pay you all if you help her before you send the bill in. She can’t get anything because I told George not to let her have only . . . for she would run me in the hole so far I could never get out.
Daniel Groves,
Surrey, Maine
R. F. D. No. 2
c/o Harry Snow”
The defendant maintains that, because of the offer of Groves to pay as set forth in the letter and a subsequent renewal thereof, this was not an application for pauper supplies in accordance with the terms of section 2 of the statute in question. It is true, as contended by the defendant, that a person can not be pauperized except by
There was in this case no agreement between Groves and the Town of Bar Harbor that these supplies were not to be regarded as pauper relief. His letter can be construed in no other way than as an application to the town to relieve his family from distress, which he was then unable to alleviate himself. The rights of the parties are determined by the facts as they were at that time. Inhabitants of Veazie v. Inhabitants of Chester, supra.
Motion sustained.
New tried granted. -