James L. Harris, Conservator of the Estate of Bertha Kern Clark, Mother of John W. Clark v. District of Columbia

BURGER, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a District Court judgment against the estate of Bertha Kern Clark, of which Appellant is conservator, in the amount of $36,000 for the expenses of maintaining Mrs. Clark’s mentally incompetent child in St. Eliza-beths Hospital for some seventeen years prior to the date of the judgment.1 The pertinent statute provides:

The father, mother, husband, wife, and adult children of an insane person, if of sufficient ability, and the committee or guardian of his or her person and estate, if his or her estate is sufficient for the purpose, shall pay the cost…