Legal Notes
A decision in an interesting case of difficulty in determining “residence” under Section 44 (3) of the Mental Deficiency Act, was given on August 3rd, by the Worthing Petty Sessional Court in dealing with an application by the London County Council for the transfer of liability for maintenance of a defective from such Council to the West Sussex County Council.
The facts of the case as reported in the “Poor Law Officers’ Journal” (Sep- tember 9th) may be briefly stated as follows:?
The defective resided in Sheffield from her birth in 1888 to April 1911, when she came to London, residing there until January 1916. She was then sent under the Mental Deficiency Act to St. Mary’s Home, Alton, where she was maintained by the London County Council. In April 1918, she was discharged and sup- ported herself in service in London until April 1919. She then returned to Sheffield where she at once found her way to the Workhouse. Correspondence as to her ultimate disposal thereupon ensued between the London County Council and the Sheffield Town Council. Four months later?August 7th 1919?she was, at her own desire, re-admitted to Alton as a voluntary case. She was thence transferred to a branch institution?the House of the Holy Rood, in Worthing? and was eventually, on August 24th 1920, re-certified under the Mental Deficiency Act. At the instance of the Board of Control the proceedings for certification were taken by the West Sussex County Council, and the Certifying Magistrate found that she “resided” within the area of the London County Council upon whom accordingly her maintenance devolved.
Counsel for the L.C.C. submitted that the liability ought to be transferred to the West Sussex County Council?in whose area the defective was residing on August 24th 1920, when she was certified. He contended that the fact that the Home of the Holy Rood was a Certified Institution was immaterial, inasmuch as the woman was not residing there as a certified defective, and that the case was covered by the decision in Berkshire County Council v. Reading Town Council (1921)*, where the argument that mere physical residence was sufficient was adopted by the Court.
See “Studies in Mental Inefficiency,” July 1921, p. 60,
Mr. Herbert Davey, for the West Sussex County Council, contended that the application ought not to succeed, but that if any alteration was made the liability should be transferred to Sheffield where defective admittedly resided before she returned to Alton. The facts in the Berkshire case showed several years’ resid- ence of a backward girl in a non-certified institution which afterwards became certified; but the defective in the present case was a person who had already been certified when she returned to Alton, and whose re-certification was obviously only a matter of time. The Legislature never intended that a Council should be able to get rid of its liability by means of the removal of a certifiable person pending certification to another area. The correspondence showed that the real dispute was between London and Sheffield. West Sussex was only brought in by a letter from the Board of Control asking the Council to present a petition. The decision in the Berkshire case was not intended to cover every case of physical residence of a defective, otherwise a county lunatic in an asylum situate outside the area of chargeability would, if dealt with as a defective under Section 16 (2) of the Mental Deficiency Act, become chargeable to the area in which the asylum was situate, without any change of physical residence.
The Magistrates after retiring gave the decision that the defective resided in West Sussex, and made an Order for the transfer of liability to the West Sussex County Council though refusing to make any order as to costs.
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