Pennsylvania Advisory Opinions October 29, 1924: AGO 36

Advisory Opinion Text

Soldiers and Sailors - Service Men - Inmates of Homes - Legal Residence - Funeral Expenses - County Liable.

Inmates of a Soldiers' and Sailors' Home have a legal residence in the respective counties where they last resided before entering the home and the county from which an inmate of such home comes is the proper county to expend the sum of $75.00 towards the funeral expenses of an inmate who was a service man.

Madam: Your communication stating that "the question has been presented to us by a member of the Board of Trustees of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Erie as to whether the Board of Trustees has a right to charge back upon the County from which an inmate of that home may come, the expenses of his funeral up to $75.00," and asking to be advised upon the question, has been received by this Department.

The Act of May 10, 1921, P. L. 473 to which the Act of May 31, 1923, P. E. 472 and the Act of June 29, 1923, P. L. 971 are amendments provides:

"That the term 'Deceased Service Man,' as used in this Act, shall be defined and construed to mean and include any soldier, sailor, marine, or members of the enlisted nurse corps, having a legal residence within their county, who has died or shall hereafter die, anywhere within or without the United States * * * or of any honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine who served or should hereafter serve in any such combative force of the United States during any war in which the United States has been or shall hereafter be engaged."

The two Acts of 1923 above referred to are exactly the same, except the first Act provides that where the total expense of the funeral of any deceased service man, including an allowance of $75.00, exceeds $300.00 the County Commissioner shall not contribute, and the second Act increases the total expense of such funeral to $400.00 and provides:

"The county commissioners of each county in this State are hereby authorized and directed to expend the sum of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) toward the funeral expenses of any such deceased service man: Provided, however, That such county commissioners shall not contribute any moneys toward the funeral expenses of any such deceased service men where the total expense of any such funeral, including said allowance of seventy-five dollars ($75.00), shall exceed four (three) hundred dollars ($300.00) ($400.00), nor unless application for the payment of such moneys shall be made within one year after the date of the burial of such deceased service man."

"Any such deceased service man" mentioned in Section 2 of the Act are the deceased service men referred to in Section one, and are those "having a legal residence within their county."

The question, therefore, is: Has an inmate of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home a legal residence within the county from which he came to the home?

Section 13, Article 8 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, is as follows:

"For the purpose of voting no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence, or lost it, by reason of his absence, while employed in the service, either civil or military, of this state or of the United States, nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the state or of the United States, or on the high seas, nor while a student of any institution of learning, nor while kept in any poor house or other asylum at public expense, nor while confined in any public prison."

In construing this Section of the Constitution, it was held in Registration of Voters in the City of Erie 21 Co. Court 473 that a soldiers' and sailors' home is clearly an asylum within the meaning of the law, and that inmates of such a home are legal voters, if otherwise qualified, in the respective districts where they last resided before entering the home, and not in the district where the home is located.

In passing upon the legal residence of an inmate of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Erie, after referring to Registration of Voters in the City of Erie, Supra, and the authorities therein cited the Court held in Bertch's Estate 45 County Court 642:

"From these decisions it would appear to follow that the legal residence or domicile of Adam Bertch at the time of his death was in the county of Lancaster and not in the county of Erie. He was not a taxpayer in the county of Erie. He had no family residing therein and never had. He was not a voter in said county and never had been. He was simply an inmate of the Pennsylvania Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in the city of Erie, and kept there at the expense of the State of Pennsylvania. As said by Judge Walling in the decision above referred to, his relations were with the home and not with the city of Erie."

I, therefore, advise you that inmates of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home have a legal residence in the respective counties where they last resided before entering the home and the county from which an inmate of such home comes is the proper county to expend the sum of $75.00 towards the funeral expenses of an inmate who was a service man.

Very truly yours, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

J. W. BROWN, Deputy Attorney General.