Patients, how classified. Eligibility. Certificate Physicians, qualifications of. and of such other business as may be prescribed by the bylaws or directed by the board of control. SEC. 12. Patients are divided into two classes as follows: First, Public patients who are feeble-minded or epileptic and are kept and maintained at the expense of the State except as hereinafter provided; Second, Private patients who are feeble-minded or epileptic and are kept and maintained without expense to the State. SEC. 13. Feeble-minded and epileptic persons, residents of this State and above the age of six years, shall be eligible to admission to the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic in the manner and upon the conditions hereinafter provided. SEC. 14. Certificates that a person is feeble-minded or of physicians. epileptic may in the discretion of the probate court be made by two reputable physicians, under oath, appointed by the probate court of the county where such alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person resides. The physicians must be permanent residents of the State, duly registered according to law, and shall not be related by blood or marriage to the alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person, nor to the person applying for such certificate, nor shall such physicians be officers or employes or attending physicians in the home for the feebleminded and epileptic. The qualifications of such physicians shall be certified by the clerk of the county in which such physicians reside, which certificate shall be in the following form: Form of certificate. Examinations, how made. Certificates, what to contain. Fees. State of Michigan, County of... . . . I hereby certify that } SS. of is a duly registered physician and surgeon and has the qualifications prescribed by the laws of this State for the practice of medicine and surgery therein, as shown by..... .. certificate of registration now on file in my office. (Seal) County Clerk. The physicians are empowered to go where such feebleminded and epileptic person may be and make such personal examination of him as to enable them to offer an opinion as to his mental condition, and no certificate shall be made except after such personal examination. Certificates that a person is feeble-minded or epileptic must contain the facts. and circumstances upon which the opinion of the physicians is based, and show that the condition of the person examined is such as to require care and treatment in an institution for the care, custody and treatment of feeble-minded or epileptic persons. Each physician making such examination and certificate shall, regardless of whether he find such person to be feeble-minded or epileptic, be entitled to receive for such services not to exceed the sum of five dollars, in the discretion of the court, and ten cents per mile for travel necessarily performed in going to the place of such examination. admission, how served. SEC. 15. Petitions for the admission of a person to the Petitions for Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic may be how and by made by the father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, whom child or guardian of a person alleged to be feeble-minded or epileptic, or by the sheriff or any superintendent of the poor, or supervisor of any township within the county in which the alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person resides, and directed to the probate court of said county. Such petition What to shall contain a statement of the facts upon which the allega- contain. tion that such person is feeble-minded or epileptic is based, and because of which the application for the order is made. Upon receiving such petition the court shall fix a day for the hearing thereof, and may in its discretion appoint two reputable physicians to make the required examination of the alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person, whose certificate shall be filed with the court on or before such hearing. Notice of such petition and of the time and place of hearing Notice of thereon shall be served personally, at least twenty-four hours hearing, before the hearing, upon the person alleged to be feebleminded or epileptic and upon the prosecuting attorney, and if the petition is made by a sheriff, superintendent of the poor or supervisor, also upon the father, mother, husband, wife or some one of the next of kin of full age, of such alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person, if there be any such known to be residing within the county, and upon such of said relatives or other persons within this State as may be ordered by the court, which said notice may be served in any part of the State. The court to whom the petition is pre- Personal sented may dispense with such personal service or may di- service. rect substituted service to be made upon some person to be designated by it. The court shall state in a certificate to be attached to the petition its reason for dispensing with personal service of such notice, and if substituted service is directed, the name of the person to be served therewith. The court may in its discretion appoint a guardian ad litem Guardian to represent such feeble-minded or epileptic person upon ad litem. such hearing. The court shall also institute an inquest and Inquest, shall in all cases take proofs in writing as to the financial determine. circumstances of the patient and his relatives legally liable for his support, and shall take proofs as to the alleged condition of such person and fully investigate the facts before making an order, and if no jury is required the probate court shall determine the question of whether such person is When jury a feeble-minded or epileptic person or not. If the court shall to be deem it necessary, or if such alleged feeble-minded or epi- how selected. what to summoned; Jurors, fees of. Order for admission. When admitted as private patient. leptic person, or any relative or any person with whom he may reside or at whose house he may be shall so demand, a jury of six freeholders having the qualifications of jurors in courts of record shall be summoned to determine the question of whether such person is feeble-minded or epileptic, and whenever a jury is required the court shall proceed to the selection of such jury in the same manner as is provided for the selection of a jury for the condemnation of land for railroad purposes, and such jury shall determine the question of whether such person is feeble-minded or epileptic. The jurors shall receive the same fees for attendance and mileage as are allowed by law to jurors in the circuit court. The alleged feeble-minded or epileptic person shall have the right to be present at such hearing, unless it shall be made to appear to the court by the certificate of two reputable physicians that his condition is such as to render his removal for that purpose or his appearing at such hearing improper and unsafe. If such person shall be found and adjudged to be feeble-minded or epileptic the court shall immediately issue an order for his admission to the home for the feeble-minded and epileptic. If at the time of or before the making of such order a bond in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, executed by a surety company authorized to do business in this State or by two or more sureties to be approved by the judge of probate, running to the people of the State of Michigan and conditioned for the payment of the support and maintenance of the patient in the manner prescribed by law, shall be delivered to the judge of probate, together with the sum of fifty dollars as an advance payment toward the support of such patient, admission shall be ordered as a private patient, otherwise as a public patient. Such bond and advance payment, together with the order of admission and bond, shall be transmitted by the probate Until court to the medical superintendent of the home. such bond and advance payment are delivered to the medical superintendent the person shall be admitted to the home. only as a public patient. At the request of the medical su responsibility perintendent the court shall require the sureties upon such bond to justify their responsibility anew or order that a new bond be given in place of the original, which justification or new bond shall be transmitted to the medical superintendent, and unless such justification or new bond shall be delivered to the medical superintendent within thirty days the patient shall, from the time of such request, be regarded as a public patient. The court shall designate a proper person or persons to take such feeble-minded or epileptic person to the home, who shall each receive as pay for such services the sum of three dollars per day, together with necessary expenses, which together with all court expenses shall be borne by the county from which the patient is sent. Public patient. Sureties, of. The order for admission shall be substantially in the follow- Order for ing form: State of Michigan. The Probate Court for the County of.... At a session of said court held at the probate office in the admission, form of. In the matter of a feeble-minded person. hearing the petition of having been appointed for be admitted to the the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic as a It appearing to the court upon filing the certificates of jury that said ... person and is in need of care and treatment at the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic; It is ordered that said ... be admitted to the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic as It is further ordered that hereby designated and directed to remove said be and is to said Michigan Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, with full power and authority for that purpose. Judge of Probate. If the order for admission is as a public patient and it Maintenance. shall appear from the proofs taken in writing as aforesaid that the patient has an estate out of which the State may be reimbursed for his maintenance, the court shall direct in said order for admission the payment out of such estate of the whole or such part of the cost of maintenance of said patient at said home as he shall deem just, regard being had to the needs of those having a legal right to support out of said estate, which said order shall remain in full force and effect until modified by proceedings under section seventeen of this act, or until the patient shall be discharged from said home, and the judge of probate committing such patient shall be notified of his discharge. Whenever an order is made committing any person to the home a copy of such order shall be mailed forthwith to the medical superintendent who shall endorse thereon the date of receipt and file the Admission. Proviso, indigent patients. Expenses, how paid. Warrant. Who liable. Prosecuting attorney, duty of." Petition, what to state. same in his office. Patients shall be entitled to admission in the order in which the copies of the orders for commitment were received and filed, and whenever there shall be room at the home to receive additional patients the medical superintendent shall at once notify the probate court, which made the commitment earliest received and filed as aforesaid, and said court shall cause said patient to be taken to said home or shall notify the medical superintendent that said person is no longer entitled to admission: Provided, Preference shall be given to the admission of indigent patients, so far as circumstances permit. SEC. 16. The State shall pay to the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic all the expenses for keeping and maintaining public patients therein including their clothing and all other expenses. An account of these expenses, verified by the oath of the medical superintendent, shall be sent to the Auditor General quarterly, who shall draw his warrant therefor on the State Treasurer, who shall pay the same out of any moneys appropriated for that purpose, if there be any, and if not, then out of the general fund. Every public patient, if he has an estate sufficient for that purpose, and if not, then such relatives as are legally liable for his support, shall be liable to the State for all expenses paid by it on his behalf. The relatives legally liable for his support as provided in this act shall include the father, mother, children and husband of the patient. SEC. 17. The prosecuting attorney is charged with the duty of appearing for and representing the State in all proceedings to reimburse it for the expenses which it may pay for a public patient, and to subject the estate of the patient and his relatives who are legally liable for his support to the Who to have payment of such expenses. The Attorney General shall have supervision. the supervision of the prosecuting attorneys in conducting such proceedings, and shall report to the Governor any neglect therein on the part of the prosecuting attorney. When any person has been admitted to the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic as a public patient the prosecuting attorney of the county in which the order for admission was made shall, if such person be possessed of any estate or shall thereafter while he shall remain such public patient become possessed thereof, petition the probate court of said county in his name as prosecuting attorney, stating that such person has been admitted to said home as a public patient; that he has good reason to believe and does believe that he has an estate, and praying for the appointment of a guardian over such person if one has not already been appointed, and that said estate may be subjected to the payment to the State of the expenses paid and to be paid by it on behalf of said public patient. The court shall thereupon issue a citation to show cause why the prayer of the petition should not be granted. If the patient has a guardian Guardian. Citation, how served. |