State ex rel. Department of Finance, Budget & Business v. Thurston County

This action was brought by the state to recover $40,417.11 from Thurston county for the care and maintenance of insane patients committed from Thurston county to the Western State Hospital for the Insane. After the action was instituted, The Washington Recorder Publishing Company intervened. The defendant county answered, denying liability, and, in the answer, it interposed five affirmative defenses, separately stated. The reply of the state denied the affirmative defenses.

The cause was tried to the court without a jury, and resulted in findings of fact from which it was concluded that the…