in books to be provided for that purpose, and certified by the signature of such of the superintendents as make the same; and a duplicate thereof, certified in the same manner, shall be filed in the office of the county clerk within thirty days after making such decision.

§ 49. Appeal to the county court. Any or either of the parties interested in a decision of the superintendent of the poor, or in any dispute that shall arise concerning the settlement of any poor person, may appeal from such decision to the county court of the county in which such decision shall be made, by serving upon the other parties interested therein, within thirty days after service upon the appellant of a notice of the same, a notice of appeal, which shall be signed by the appellant or his attorney, and which shall specify the grounds of the appeal. The hearing of such appeal may be brought on by either party in or out of term, upon notice of fourteen days. Upon such appeal a new trial of the matters in dispute shall be had in the county court without a jury, and a decision of the county court therein shall be final and conclusive, and the same costs shall be awarded as are allowed on appeals to said court.

For the purposes of this chapter the county court shall be deemed open at all times.

§ 50. Penalty for removing. Any person who shall send, remove or entice to remove, or bring, or cause to be sent, removed or brought, any poor or indigent person, from any city, town or county, to any other city, town or county, without legal authority, and there leave such person for the purpose of avoiding the charge of such poor or indigent person upon the city, town or county from which he is so sent, removed or brought, or enticed to remove, shall forfeit fifty dollars, to be recovered by and in the name of the town, city or county to which such poor person shall be sent, brought or removed, or enticed to remove, and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

To make a person liable, under the statutes, for removing, without legal authority a poor and indigent person to another county, it must be alleged, and proven to be, with intent, to make such county chargeable with the support of such pauper.

The same intent must also be established, where the action is to make the county from which the pauper was removed liable under such provisions.

The intent with which the removal is effected, is the gravamen of criminal offense. An action will not lie by the superintendents of the poor of one county against the superintendents of another county for the maintenance of a pauper removed from the county of the latter without legal authority, into the county of the former, where the removal is made at the request of the pauper, so that he may be under the care of his family and friends, and without any intent on the part of the person removing him to make the county into which he is removed chargeable with his support. It seems, that the bringing of a pauper into this State, will not subject the person bringing him to the penalties of the act on this subject, unless it be done with the intent of subjecting some particular town or county to the charge of supporting such pauper. Court of Appeals, March, 1866, Foster v. Cronkhite, 35 N. Y. 139. A party may testify directly to the intent with which he did an act, when the intent is a fact material to the issue. Court of Appeals, December, 1870, Cortland County v. Herkimer County, 44 N. Y. 22.

In the latter case it was held that the superintendent might testify directly as to the intent with which he did an act when the intent is a fact material to the issue.

§ 51. Proceedings to compel support. A poor person so removed, brought or enticed, or who shall of his own accord come or stray from one city, town or county into any other city, town or county not legally chargeable with his support, shall be maintained by the county superintendents of the county where he may be. They may give notice to either of the overseers of the poor of the town or city from which he was brought or enticed, or came as aforesaid, if such town or city be liable for his support, and if there be no town or city in the county from which he was brought or enticed or came liable for his support, then to either of the county superintendents of the poor of such county, within ten days after acquiring knowledge of such improper removal, informing them of such improper removal, and requiring them forthwith to take charge of such poor person. If there be no overseers or superintendents of the poor in such town, city or county, such notice shall be given to the person, by whatever name known, who has charge and care of the poor in such locality.

In Supreme Court, June 21, 1889, Bellows v. Courter, 6 N. Y. Supp. 73, it was held that an action will not lie for the support of a pauper by a county into which he had voluntarily removed, at a time when he was not a pauper, against the county from which he had so removed.

An overseer or superintendent of the poor who finds a pauper in his county or town, has no right to remove him to another town or county where he believes he belongs; but he must provide for his support and then pursue his remedy af

forded by the laws. Supreme Court, July, 1883, Smith v. Brundage, 17 Wkly. Dig. 266.

In Supreme Court, June 22, 1889, McKay v. Walsh, 6 N. Y. Supp. 358, it was Held, that a notice which does not state that the pauper was a pauper while in the town from which he came nor that his voluntary change of residence was improper, was insufficient.

Held that, when a person becomes a poor person "after he has left the town or county in which he has gained a settlement, he must be supported by the county in which he becomes a poor person, without right on the part of such county to reimbursement from the town or county from which he came, even though his settlement still remains there. Supreme Court, App. Div., May 3, 1905, Delaware County v. Town of Delaware, Sullivan County, 93 N. Y. Supp. 954.

§ 52. Liability, how contested. The county superintendents, or overseers, or other persons to whom such notice may be directed may, after the service of such notice, take and remove such poor person to their county, town or city, and there support. him, and pay the expense of such notice, and of the support of such person; or they shall, within thirty days after receiving such notice, by a written instrument under their hands, notify the county superintendents from whom such notice was received, or either of them, that they deny the allegation of such improper enticing or removal, or that their town, city or county is liable for the support of such poor person.

It is not necessary to follow the language of the statute in a denial of liability for the support of a pauper. Court of Appeals, October 7, 1890, Stillwell v. Coons, 122 N. Y. 242.

Personal service of a notice is not necessary to enable a town, city or county to contest its liability. Supreme Court, January, 1889, Stillwell v. Kennedy, 51 Hun, 114.

When a poor person removes, or is removed from a town in one county to a town, not chargeable with his support, in another county, and is there necessarily relieved by the overseer of the poor of the town the expense incurred and the burden of thereafter maintaining the person is, as between that town and its county, a charge on the county, provided the overseer gives the superintendent of the poor of his county notice of the circumstances of the case, as provided by the statute. Court of Appeals, October 7, 1890, Stillwell v. Coons, 122 N. Y. 242-4.

If such denial be served by mail, received and retained by the plaintiff without objection, the service is sufficient. Id.; Supreme Court, January, 1889, Stillwell v. Kennedy, 51 Hun, 114.

Revised Statutes N. Y. pt. 1, ch. 20, tit. 1, § 31, provides that no person shall be removed as a pauper from any city or town to any city or town of the same or any other county, or from any county to any other county, but every poor person shall be supported in the county where he may be; that if he has gained a settlement in any town in such county he shall be maintained by such

town; and that if he has not gained a settlement in the county in which he shall become poor, sick or infirm, he shall be supported and relieved by the superintendent of the poor at the expense of the county. Such statutes, as amended by Laws of New York, 1885, ch. 546, provide that any pauper, who shall, of his own accord, come or stray from one city, town or county, into any other city, town or county not legally chargeable with his support, shall be maintained by the superintendent of the county where he may be, and that by taking certain proceedings the liability of the county or town from whence he came for his support may be fixed, if such county is so liable. Held, that one who had always been able to support himself and family by manual labor, though the wages earned by him were not more than sufficient for that purpose, was not a pauper, within the meaning of the statute; and where, having been a resident of the city and county of New York he went to another county, and there met with an accident, which rendered him unable to support himself, the county from whence he came is not liable for his support. Supreme Court, January, 1889, Wood v. Simmons, 4 N. Y. Supp. 368; S. C. 51 Hun, 325.

§ 53. Neglect to contest. If there shall be a neglect to take and remove such poor person, and to serve notice of such denial within the time above prescribed, the county superintendents and overseers, respectively, whose duty it was so to do, their successors, and their respective counties, cities or towns, shall be deemed to have acquiesced in the allegations contained in such first notice, and shall be forever precluded from contesting the same, and their counties, cities and towns, respectively, shall be liable for the expenses of the support of such poor person, which may be recovered from time to time, by county superintendents incurring such expenses, in the name of their county in actions against the county, city or town so liable.

§ 54. Actions, when and how to be brought. Upon service of any such notice of denial, the county superintendents upon whom the same may be served, shall, within three months, commence an action in the name of their county, against the town, city or county so liable for the expenses incurred in the support of such poor person, and prosecute the same to effect; if they neglect to do so, their town, city or county, shall be precluded from all claim against the town, city or county to whose officers such first notice was directed.

If a local law and the Poor Law conflict, "One must yield to the other, and as the Poor Law is uniform and general in its provisions it should not be defeated or set at naught by a special act passed for the purpose of regulating and controlling the affairs of a single city." Supreme Court, June, 1909.

Onondaga Co. v. City of Amsterdam, 64 Misc. 181; 139 App. Div. 877, 883; 140 id. 916.

§ 55. Penalty for bringing foreign poor into this state. Any person who shall knowingly bring or remove, or cause to be brought or removed, any poor person from any place without this state, into any county, city or town within it, and there leave or attempt to leave such poor person, with intent to make any such county, city or town, or the state, wrongfully chargeable with his support, shall forfeit fifty dollars, to be recovered by an action in a court of competent jurisdiction in the county, and in the name of the county, city or town into which such poor person shall be brought, and shall be obliged to convey such person out of the state, or support him at his own expense, and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and the court or magistrate before whom any person shall be convicted for a violation of this section shall require of such person satisfactory security that he will within a reasonable time, to be named by the court or magistrate, transport such person out of the state, or indemnify the town, city or county for all charges and expenses which may be incurred in his support; and if such person shall refuse to give such security when so required, the court or magistrate shall commit him to the common jail of the county for a term not exceeding three months.

Overseers of the poor, who have expended money, under an order for the maintenance of a pauper, cannot maintain an action on the case against the person who brought the pauper into the town, having no legal settlement in the state, for the amount so expended; but their remedy is under the statute to recover the penalty given in such case. Supreme Court, May, 1814, Crouse v. Mabbett et al., 11 Johns. 167.

The penalty given by statute for bringing a poor, or indigent person, not having a settlement, into any city or town within this state without legal authority, is incurred as well by bringing such person from one town to another town within the state, as by bringing him from without the state. To subject a party to the penalty, it must be shown that he acted mala fide; it seems, that carriers of passengers are within the letter, but not within the spirit of the act, and cannot be charged, unless in bringing poor and indigent persons into a city or town, and leaving them there, they acted fraudulently. Proof by an inhabi tant long a resident in the town, that he had never known the pauper, is prima facie sufficient evidence that the pauper has not a legal settlement in the town. Supreme Court, May, 1832, Thomas v. Ross & Shaw, 8 Wend. 672.

§ 56. Poor children under sixteen years of age. No