Phelps v. Inhabitants of Westford
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
“Contract under the Gen. Sts. c. 70, § 16, upon an account v: vexed, for medical attendance and medicines furnished Jacob Reed, a pauper, in the defendant town. Trial in the Superior Court, without a jury, before Pitman, J., who found the following facts: Ihe plaintiff was a physician, and was called to attend Reed, who was a pauper, and in actual distress in the defendant town, needing immediate medical attendance.
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“Contract under the Gen. Sts. c. 70, § 16, upon an account v: vexed, for medical attendance and medicines furnished Jacob Reed, a pauper, in the defendant town. Trial in the Superior Court, without a jury, before Pitman, J., who found the following facts: Ihe plaintiff was a physician, and was called to attend Reed, who was a pauper, and in actual distress in the defendant town, needing immediate medical attendance. The plaintiff sent to the overseers of the poor of the defendant town a notice that Reed was ill, that he had been called to attend him and should oak to the town for his pay. The…
1Opinion of the CourtLord, J.
The plaintiff’s claim is founded upon the Gen. Sts. c. 70, § 16, which provide that “ every city and town shall be held to pay any expense necessarily incurred for the relief of a pauper therein by any person who is not liable by law for his support, after notice and request made to the overseers thereof, and until provision is made by them.”
The decision of this case turns upon the construction of that phrase of the statute, “ until provision is made by them.” Were these services rendered after notice, and before provision was made by the public authorities ?
*288The facts find that the first…
2Cited by1 opinion
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