Inhabitants of Randolph v. Inhabitants of Easton
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an action of assumpsit to recover for the support of one Jonas Howard, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged to be in the town of Easton, on the ground that he had resided therein ten years consecutively, since the year 1818, and had paid all taxes duly assessed upon him there, for five years within that period, according to the twelfth mode specified in the statute of 1793, c. 34, § 2. At the trial, before Byington, J., in the court of common pleas, it was in…
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This was an action of assumpsit to recover for the support of one Jonas Howard, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged to be in the town of Easton, on the ground that he had resided therein ten years consecutively, since the year 1818, and had paid all taxes duly assessed upon him there, for five years within that period, according to the twelfth mode specified in the statute of 1793, c. 34, § 2. At the trial, before Byington, J., in the court of common pleas, it was in evidence on the part of the plaintiffs, that in April, 1818, Jonas Howard, the pauper, removed with his family to Easton,…
1Opinion of the Court
By the court.
The court concur in opinion with the judge who tried the cause.
The pauper was in the occupation of the estate during the whole six years, and was rightfully taxed for it. It was competent then, as now, to set the tax on real estate to the person in the occupation of it; the tax was his tax; and he was *559bound to pay it. St. 1785, c. 70, §§ 14, 15. It was not the less his tax, a tax which he was liable to pay, and which he did pay, because the name of another person, as owner, was mentioned in the tax books.
It was argued, that to gain a settlement in the twelfth mode mentioned in…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Inhabitants of Sudbury v. Inhabitants of StowMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1816