Gartner

In 1927 appellant Gartner, a resident of Alaska, was adjudged insane by a territorial court and committed to a hospital with which the United States had a contract for the care of Alaska insane. In 1945 the United States brought this suit against Gartner and his estate to recover $9,180.11 *535 as the reasonable cost of the care and maintenance of the patient from the date of his incarceration to October 14, 1942. 1 A defense interposed by answer was that the Congressional appropriations for the care of the Alaska insane during the period covered by the suit had been solely on a charitable basis with no suggestion of a purpose of exacting reimbursement, in whole or in part from the patients or their estates. The trial court largely ignored this defense. It agreed with the theory advanced by.the government, namely, that at common law a right to reimbursement from the estate of the insane person subsisted in the sovereign and that since the common law had been made applicable to Alaska, so far as not inconsistent with statutory enactments, its principles could be invoked by the United States. A verdict was directed in the amount prayed for.

As we view it, the problem is one of…