must sell the produce of the labor of the offender, and must account for the cost of the materials or implements purchased, and for one-half of the surplus, to the board of supervisors, and pay it into the county treasury, and pay the other half of the surplus to the person by whom it was earned, on his discharge from imprisonment. He must also account to the court, when equired, for the materials or implements purchased, and for the disposition of the proceeds of the labor of the offender. Id., § 13.

TITLE VIII.

OF PROCEEDINGS RESPECTING THE SUPPORT OF POOR

PERSONS.

SECTION 914. Who may be compelled to support poor relatives.

915. Order to compel a person to support a poor relative, by whom and how applied for to court of sessions.

916. Court to hear the case and make order of support.

917. Support, when to be apportioned among different relatives.
918. Order, to prescribe time during which support is to continue, or
may be indefinite; when and how order may be varied.

919. Costs, by whom to be paid and how enforced.

920. Action on the order, on failure to comply therewith.
921. Parents leaving their children chargeable to the public, how
proceeded against.

922. Seizure of their property; transfer thereof, when void.

923. Warrant and seizure, when confirmed or discharged; direction

of the court thereon.

924. Warrant, in what cases to be discharged.

925. Sale of the property seized and application of its proceeds.
926. Powers of superintendents of poor.

§ 914. Who may be compelled to support poor relatives, The father, mother and children, of sufficient ability, of a poor person who is insane, blind, old, lame, impotent or decrepid, so as to be unable by work to maintain himself, must at their own charge, relieve and maintain him in a manner to be approved by the overseers of the town where he is, or in the city of New York, by the commissioners of charities and corrections.

2 R. S., 808, § 1.

(a) Who must support relatives. — A grand child is liable to suppert grand parents. (Ex parte Hunt, 5 Cow., 284.)

(b) Husband not bound to support step-children. — A husband is not bound to maintain wife's bastard children born before marriage. (Menden v. Cox, 7 Cow., 235.)

(c) Nor of his wife's mother. (Anon., 3 N. Y. Leg. Obs., 354.)

(d) Liability of children several.-Two out of five children of a poor person may be ordered to support him; and as their liability is several, they may be ordered to contribute in unequal amounts. (Stone v. Burgess, 2 Lans., 439; 47 N. Y., 521.)

(e) No common-law obligation.-There is no common-law obligation on the part of a child to support a parent; it is purely statutory. (Edwards v. Davis, 16 Johns., 281.)

§ 915. Order to compel a person to support a poor relative, by whom and how applied for, to court of sessions. If a relative of a poor person fail to relieve and maintain him, as provided in the last section, the overseers of the poor of the town where he is, or in the city of New York, the commissioners of charities and corrections may apply to the court of sessions of the county where the relative dwells, for an order to compel such relief, upon at least ten days' written notice, served personally, or by leaving it at the last place of residence of the person to whom it is directed, in case of his absence, with a person of suitable age and discretion.

Id., § 2.

(a) Ability of relative to support.- Where a relative of a poor person is of sufficient ability, a previous order is not necessary to give jurisdiction to the sessions. (Anon., 3 N. Y., Leg. Obs., 354.)

(b) Action by superintendents of the poor.- The superintendents of the poor cannot sustain an action against a husband for the maintenance of his wife as a pauper. (Norton v. Rhodes, 18 Barb., 100.)

(c) To convict a husband of deserting his wife under the act of 1871, chapter 395, it must be shown that she has no adequate means of support, and is a burden upon the public. (People v. Walsh, 11 Hun, 292.)

§ 916. Court to hear the case, and make order of support.— At the time appointed in the notice, the court must proceed summarily to hear the allegations and proofs of the parties, and must order such of the relatives of the poor person, mentioned in section nine hundred and fourteen, as were served with the notice and are of sufficient ability, to relieve and maintain him, specifying in the order the sum to be paid weekly for his support, and requiring it to be paid by the father, or if there be

none, or if he be not of sufficient ability, then by the children, or if there be none, or if they be not of sufficient ability, then by the mother.

Id., § 3.

Where the court of sessions has made an order on a person for the support of an indigent parent at his own house, there can be no recovery against him for her support elsewhere, so long as he is willing to obey the order. (Converse v. McArthur, 17 Barb., 410; Duel v. Lamb, 1 S. C., 66.)

§ 917. Support, when to be apportioned among different relatives.- If it appear that any such relative is unable wholly to maintain the poor person, but is able to contribute toward his support, the court may direct two or more relatives, of different degrees, to maintain him, prescribing the proportion which each must contribute for that purpose; and if it appear that the relatives are not of sufficient ability wholly to maintain him, but are able to contribute something, the court must direct the sum, in proportion to their ability, which they shall pay weekly for that purpose.

Id., § 4.

Two out of five of the children of a poor person may be ordered to support him, and they may be ordered to contribute thereto in unequal amounts, their liability being several. (Stone v. Burgess, 2 Lans., 439; 47 N. Y., 521.)

§ 918. Order to prescribe time during which support is to continue, or may be definite; when and how order may be varied.— The order may specify the time during which the relatives must maintain the poor person, or during which any of the sums directed by the court are to be paid or it may be indefinite, or until the further order of the court. The court may from time to time vary the order, as circumstances may require, on the application either of any relative affected by it, or of an officer on whose application the order was made, upon ten days' written notice.

§ 919. Costs, by whom to be paid, and how enforced.The costs and expenses of the application must be ascertained by the court, and paid by the relatives against whom the order is made; and the payment thereof, and obedience to the order of

maintenance, and to any order for the payment of money, may be enforced by attachment.

Id., § 6.

And they are responsible for the costs awarded on granting the order. (Id.) The ability to support may consist in the ability to earn daily labor. (Bernardus v. Williamson, 1 Wh. C. C., 234.)

§ 920. Action on on the order on failure to comply therewith. If a relative, required by an order of the court, to relieve or maintain a poor person, neglect to do so in the manner approved by the officers mentioned in section nine hundred and fourteen, and neglect to pay to them weekly the sum prescribed by the court, the officers may maintain an action against the relative, and recover therein the sum prescribed by the court, for every week the order has been disobeyed, .to the time of the recovery, with costs, for the use of the poor. In the city of New York, the action must be in the name of the corporation of that city.

Id., § 7.

What amounts to a breach of the order. The indigent party cannot choose place of residence. (Converse v. McArthur, 17 Barb., 410; Duel v. Lamb, 1 S. C., 66.)

§ 921. Parents leaving their children chargeable to the public, how proceeded against. When the father, or the mother being a widow or living separate from her husband, absconds from the children, or a husband from his wife, leaving any of them chargeable or likely to become chargeable upon the public, the officers mentioned in section nine hundred and fourteen may apply to any two justices of the peace or police justices in the county in which any real or personal property of the father, mother or husband is situated, for a warrant to seize the same. Upon due proof of the facts, the magistrate must issue his warrant, authorizing the officers so applying to take and seize the property of the person so absconding.

Id., § 8.

See Downing v. Rugar, 21 Wend., 188, and People v. Overseers of Triangle, 23 Barb., 236.

§ 922. Seizure of their property; transfer thereof when void. The officers so applying may seize and take the property, wherever it may be found in the same county; and are

vested with all the right and title thereto, which the person absconding then had. The sale or transfer of any personal property, left in the county from which he absconded, made after the issuing of the warrant, whether in payment of an antecedent debt or for a new consideration, is absolutely void. The officers must immediately make an inventory of the property seized by them, and return it, together with their proceedings, to the next court of sessions of the county where they reside, there to be filed.

Id., § 9.

$923. Warrant and seizure, when confirmed or discharged; direction of the court thereon. The court, upon inquiring into the circumstances of the case, may confirm or discharge the warrant and seizure; and if it be confirmed, must, from time to time, direct what part of the personal property must be sold, and how much of the proceeds of the sale, and of the rents and profits of the real property, if any, are to be applied towards the maintenance of the children or wife of the person absconding.

Id., § 10.

In case of a warrant and seizure of property issued under this statute, the court must take evidence and examine into the merits. (People v. Overseers, 23 Barb., 236.)

§ 924. Warrant, in what cases to be discharged. - If the party against whom the warrant issued, return and support the wife or children so abandoned, or give security satisfactory to any two justices of the peace, or police justices in the city, village or town, to the overseers of the poor of the town, or in the city of New York, to the commissioners of charities and corrections, that the wife or children so abandoned shall not be chargeable to the town or county, then the warrant must be discharged by an order of the magistrates, and the property taken by virtue thereof restored to the party.

Id., § 11.

§ 925. Sale of the property seized and application of its proceeds. The officers must sell at public auction the property ordered to be sold, and receive the rents and profits of the real property of the person absconding, and in those cities, villages or towns which are required to support their own poor,