A committee may be removed on sufficient cause, as bankruptcy, but the Court will not change the custody, if the Master finds it proper with regard to the comfort of the lunatic. Ex parte Mildmay, 3 Ves. 2.
Where there are sufficient funds, a liberal application of the property of a lunatic ought to be made, in order to afford him every comfort his situation will admit, Ex parte Baker, 6 Ves. 8. ex parte Chumley, 1 Ves. jun. 296. Dormer’s Case, 2 P. Wms. 265. 3 P. Wms. 104. His comfort, where no creditor complains, is the first object, not the heaping up of riches for his next of kin, ib. The Chancellor will not make an order, even for creditors, the effect of which would be to put the lunatic in a state of absolute want, Ex parte Dikes, 8 Ves. 79; nor unless it is clear that he will have a sufficient maintenance, Ex parte Hastings, 14 Ves. 182.
We are next to consider how a party once found lunatic, can, upon recovery, resume his natural and civil rights;[[507]] for this purpose the strongest medical as well as general evidence will be necessary, not only as to absolute recovery, but temporary remissions or lucid intervals, for if a party be once found non compos, the finding is conclusive, till evidence be shown to the contrary, see Hall v. Warren, 9 Ves. 605: Attorn. Gen. v. Parnther, 3 Bro. Ch. Ca. 441: and if as to a lucid interval there must be this severity of proof, much more must the onus of proving an absolute recovery rest with the party seeking to set aside the former finding of a competent tribunal, or even to negative an established presumption;—“When the party has ever been subject to a commission, or to any restraint permitted by law, even a domestic restraint, clearly and plainly upon him in consequence of undisputed insanity, the proof shewing sanity is thrown upon him; on the other hand, where insanity has not been imputed by relations or friends, or even by common law, the proof of insanity, (which does not appear ever to have existed) is thrown upon the other side; which is not to be made out by rambling through the whole life of the party; but must be applied to the particular date of the transaction. A deviation from that rule will produce great uncertainty.” Lord Eldon in White and Wilson, 13 Ves. 88; see also 3 Bro. Ch. Ca. 241. On motion that a recovered lunatic might settle his estate, Lord Keeper North refused the motion, but directed an issue in the Common Pleas to try the fact of the recovery, 1 Vern. 155. so also Lord Eldon in ex parte Holylands, 11 Ves. 10; but the commission may sometimes be superceded on inspection, when it is usual for the physician to attend. 1 Fonb. Tr. Eq. 65. or to make affidavit; but the former mode is the best.
It has been said that there are no degrees of defect of understanding save idiotcy and lunacy, Hume v. Burton, Ridgw. Par. Ca. 211; this may be true as relates to commissions of idiotcy or lunacy, and their consequences, but it is neither legally or medically correct in any more extended sense.
Delirium,[[508]] in the ordinary acceptation of the word, is the temporary derangement of intellect consequent on acute disease; it may be distinguished from lunacy or madness by the invariable presence of fever, and it ceases as its exciting causes subside; this therefore operates no permanent incapacity; for though the patient cannot be permitted to do any act, or execute any instrument to bind his property or estate, and would not be held responsible for any crime committed during such temporary alienation of intellect, yet he becomes competent to act, and responsible for his actions as soon as the paroxysm and its consequences are clearly over.
But there is yet another species of mental disorder which, since it does not incapacitate the patient from performing the ordinary duties and offices of life, does not subject him to the inconveniences of commission of lunacy, or exempt him from criminal responsibility; we mean those partial insanities which are marked by peculiar and unaccountable dislikes, fancies, and apprehensions, a mental idiocyncrasy on some one particular subject.[[509]]
* * * Fuit haud ignobilis Argus
Qui se credebat miros audire tragædos,[[510]]
In vacuo lætus sessor plausorque theatro;
Cætera qui vitæ servaret munia recto