In re the Appeal of Keep

241 A.D. 556, 272 N.Y.S. 713, 1934 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8306
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 27, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 241 A.D. 556 (In re the Appeal of Keep) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Appeal of Keep, 241 A.D. 556, 272 N.Y.S. 713, 1934 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8306 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

Lewis, J.

We must here determine whether section 23 of the Civil Practice Act can be invoked to extend the time to appeal fixed by a special statute where such limitation is inherent in the right of review.

On September 9, 1929, the common council of the city of Lock-port confirmed a local assessment for water service piping in a city street. An appeal from the resolution and the assessment which it confirmed was taken by a number of aggrieved property owners. That appeal was to the Supreme Cotut where, following a trial of the issues before an official referee, the assessment was vacated [557]*557and set aside. (138 Misc. 194.) The city of Lockport appealed from the judgment entered upon the official referee’s report. Thereupon this court reversed the judgment and dismissed the proceeding (237 App. Div. 377) for the reason that under the Lockport city charter the right to review an assessment confers jurisdiction in the first instance upon the County Court and that the Supreme Court is without jurisdiction unless the county judge certifies that he is disqualified by reason of interest in the proceeding. Upon appeal to the Court of Appeals, the decision of this court was affirmed (262 N. Y. 596), and judgment upon the Court of Appeals’ remittitur was entered in the Niagara county clerk’s office September 22, 1933. Again an appeal was taken for the purpose of reviewing the same local assessment — this time to the County Court but on a date more than four years after the expiration of the time to appeal fixed by the Lockport charter. The city then moved to dismiss the second appeal upon the ground it was not perfected within twenty days after the first publication of the ordinance, as prescribed by section 246 of the charter. The learned acting county judge has denied the city’s motion upon the ground that section 23 of the Civil Practice Act may be properly invoked by the aggrieved property owners to extend their time to appeal. The appeal now before us is from the order denying the city’s motion to dismiss the property owner’s appeal.

We are particularly concerned with the following section of the city charter of Lockport (Laws of 1911, chap. 870), which provides the method by which local assessments may be reviewed:

§ 246. Appeals to county and supreme courts. An appeal may be taken within twenty days from the time of the first publication of every ordinance directing any local improvement, to the county court of the county of Niagara; and in case the county judge of said county shall be interested in any such local improvement, he shall certify such appeal to the supreme court of the judicial district in which said city is located. An appeal may in like manner be taken to said county court or supreme court from any local assessment and the order confirming the same, within twenty days from the confirmation of such assessment.”

It is significant that the Legislature placed an unusual emphasis upon the time within which an appeal may be taken by repeating the limitation in mandatory form in the succeeding paragraph:

§ 247. Appeals, how brought; undertaking; return by common council. An appeal taken in pursuance of the preceding section must be brought within the time in said sections limited.

§ 248. Hearing on appeal. * * * all proceedings upon said appeal shall be had and conducted as nearly as may be in accord[558]*558anee with the provisions of the code of civil procedure and the general rules of practice, except as herein otherwise provided.”

The right to review local assessments under the section of the Lockport city charter quoted above is a special statutory right unknown to the common law. The limitation of time prescribed by the Legislature within which an appeal may be taken is a condition precedent to the exercise of that right to appeal. If an aggrieved property owner is to avail himself of the right to review a local assessment, he must take the right afforded him subject to the time hmitation which the Legislature has fixed by unmistakable language. That limitation is an integral part of the right to review, and is, therefore, unaffected by the exceptions to the general statute of limitations. To hold otherwise we must disregard the rule established by authorities which we recognize as controlling.

In Hill v. Supervisors of Rensselaer County (119 N. Y. 344) plaintiff sought to recover damages against the defendant for the destruction of his property by mob violence during a riot. The only authority for such an action was contained in a special statute (Laws of 1855, chap. 428) which provided: No action shall be maintained under the provisions of this act, unless the same shall be brought within three months after the loss or injury.” Within that period of limitation the plaintiff started an action in County Court where the complaint was dismissed because he sought damages in excess of the court’s jurisdictional limit of $1,000. Thereafter another action was started by the plaintiff in Supreme Cotut but not within three months after the date when the loss occurred. The plaintiff claimed, however, that his cause of action was preserved by the provisions of section 405 of the Code of Civil Procedure (now section 23 of the Civil Practice Act). In ruling that section 405 of the Code of Civil Procedure was not applicable, the court states (p. 347): By reference to section 414 of the Code [now section 10 of the Civil Practice Act] the provisions of that chapter on limitations are made to ‘ apply and constitute the only rules of limitation applicable to a civil action or special proceeding, except in one of the following cases: A case where a different limitation is specially prescribed by law, etc.’ It must be evident that, as this action is brought under a special law and is maintainable solely by its authority, the limitation of time is so incorporated with the remedy given as to make it an integral part of it and the condition precedent to the maintenance of the action at all. Section 405 [now section 23 of the Civil Practice Act] was enacted with reference to the enforcement of the civil remedies prescribed by the Code, and its application is to actions generally and which the Code [559]*559of Civil Procedure was enacted to regulate. But this special law of 1855 gave a civil remedy, which is independent of the Code remedies, and in enacting section 414, the Legislature, obviously, had in view to except those particular or special remedies by action, which they had the power to allow, and to leave themselves free to attach such conditions as to limitation of time as they saw fit. So, in the law of 1855 in question, they made it a condition that the action must be brought within three months from the occurrence of the loss, and plaintiff is bound by that limitation.”

The ruling in the Hill case was in accord with a previous decision of the United States Supreme Court in The Harrisburg (119 U. S. 199), involving the same principle. There the question presented was whether an action in admiralty could be maintained for damages resulting in death by negligence under a State statute which gave such a right. The opinion by Mr. Chief Justice Waite states (p. 214): “ The statutes create a new legal liability, with the right to a suit for its enforcement, provided the suit is brought within twelve months, and not otherwise. The time within which the suit must be brought operates as a limitation of the liability itself as created, and not of the remedy alone.

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Bluebook (online)
241 A.D. 556, 272 N.Y.S. 713, 1934 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8306, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-keep-nyappdiv-1934.