Ackerson v. Board of Sup'rs

18 N.Y.S. 219, 45 N.Y. St. Rep. 173
New York Supreme Court·Decided January 15, 1892·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Lambert, J.

The right of a township to have all taxes, except school and road, collected of any railroad, for the construction of which bonds have been issued, applied to the payment of the bonded indebtedness, and for a failure upon the part of any county treasurer to so apply or provide for the application of such taxes a right of action is given by the act of 1869, c. 907, as amended in 1870 and 1871, has been settled by numerous authorities in this state. The statute of limitations applicable to a misappropriation of funds has been made applicable to an action under the provisions of the laws referred to. Strough v. Board, 119 N. Y. 212, 23 N. E. Rep. 552. Relying upon the application of the doctrine of this case, the defendants claim, in anyevent, the plaintiff ought not to recover for the taxes assessed in the year 1881, as they were barred at the time of commencement of the action, March 12, 1888. The proof given upon the trial indicated that this item of taxes, $1,515.36, assessed in 1881, was not passed over to the county treasurer until about the 9th of February, 1882. It follows that the statute would not commence to run until after payment to the county treasurer, and the failure on his part to observe the requirements of the statute. The complaint charges, in general terms, the collection and payment to the county treasurer of a given sum in each of a given series of years, which includes for the year 1881, the sum of $1,515.36, and then alleges that the treasurer of said county wrongfully and unlawfully paid out said moneys for the benefit of the county of Niagara. The defendants,- in pleading the statute of limitations, use the following terms: “That the alleged cause of action, * * * which accrued prior to and including the year 1881, accrued more than six years previous to the time of the commencement of this action, and is barred by the statute of limitations. ” The evidence permits the inference that prior to the 12th day of March, 1882, the item of tax paid by the railroad company to the treasurer was by him mingled with the other taxes of the county, and credited to one or more of the tax funds, and, in whole or in part, disbursed; so that, as matter of fact, a right of action for the misappropriation of the item levied in 1881 was barred by the statute of limitations at the time of the commencement of this action. The complaint, as has been mentioned, charged this amount to have been misappropriated in the year 1881, and not only as charged, but as disclosed by the proof, the same was barred, and the defendants could do no more, as matter of pleading, than to allege that the cause of action relied on by the plaintiff was barred, and a right of recovery thereon defeated, by lapse of time. An amendment of the complaint to conform to the proof was not asked, and, had it been secured, the defendant could have defeated a recovery by interposing the statute of limitations. This leads to the conclusion that the plaintiff, in any event, [221] should not recover the item of $1,515.36, alleged to have been misappropriated in the year 1881.

The defendants also contend that, of the aggregate sum paid in the years excluded from the operation of the statute of limitations, the sum of $5,729.26 should be deducted, for the reason that such sum was raised to defray town expenses, and was by the collector paid directly to the town officers for such use, and delivered a receipt for the same to the treasurer of Niagara county in lieu of the moneys as directed by his warrant. The statute provides that all taxes (except school and road) collected shall be paid over to the treasurer of the county, and be by him applied as therein directed, because the treasurer accepted vouchers instead of cash for the payment of taxes going to the town officers of the town of Somerset. The county of Niagara asks to be exonerated from liability on the ground that it had never received the taxes in question, and therefore owed no duty under the statute for which liability would result. This we believe to be untenable, as its adoption would permit, by indirection, the defeat of the plain provisions of the statute. The defendants insist that, so far as the town of Somerset is concerned, by the acceptance of the provisions of chapter 286 of the Laws of 1880, as amended by chapters 13 and 197 of the Laws of 1881, it is not entitled to the benefits provided by the act of 1869 as amended. In other words, these enactments, by implication, worked a repeal of the act in 1869, and thereby deprive the town of the benefit of the taxes collected upon the property which it created. The act of 1880 contains no repealing clause, and therefore the act of 1869, as amended, must be treated as in force, unless it is so repugnant to and inconsistent with the statutes under which the bonds.were issued that both cannot be treated as applicable to their payment. People v. Jaehne, 103 N. Y. 195, 8 N. E. Rep. 374; Hecknann v. Pinkney, 81 N. Y. 211; People v. McClave, 99 N. Y. 83, 1 N. E. Rep. 235; In re Kiernan, 62 N. Y. 457; People v. Supervisors, 73 N. Y. 173.

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Ackerson v. Board of Sup'rs, 18 N.Y.S. 219, 45 N.Y. St. Rep. 173 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1892).

18 N.Y.S. 219 (Ackerson v. Board of Sup'rs) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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