New York State Ass'n of Small City School Districts, Inc. v. State

42 A.D.3d 648, 840 N.Y.S.2d 179
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 5, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 42 A.D.3d 648 (New York State Ass'n of Small City School Districts, Inc. v. State) 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
New York State Ass'n of Small City School Districts, Inc. v. State, 42 A.D.3d 648, 840 N.Y.S.2d 179 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Spain, J.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (McNamara, J.), entered June 22, 2006 in Albany County, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint.

Plaintiff New York State Association of Small City School Districts, Inc. (hereinafter the Association) and members of the boards of education of 18 of the Association’s member school districts originally commenced this action against defendant [649]*649State of New York in March 2005. The complaint challenges the constitutionality of the education funding system utilized in New York State, seeking a declaration that the represented school districts are so substantially underfunded that they are unable to provide a sound basic education to students as required by NY Constitution, article XI, § 1 (hereinafter the Education Article). Following the State’s motion to dismiss based, in part, on a claim that the original plaintiffs lacked the capacity and standing to bring this action, plaintiffs were permitted to amend their complaint to add parents and students from four of the city school districts, and to add the Governor and the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance as defendants. Upon consideration of defendants’ motion to dismiss, Supreme Court concluded that only the individually named parent and student plaintiffs had standing to bring this action. Then, on the merits, Supreme Court found that plaintiffs had failed to state a cause of action and dismissed the amended complaint. On plaintiffs’ appeal, we now affirm.

Initially, we concur with Supreme Court’s conclusion that the Association lacks standing to bring this action. Unquestionably, the Association’s individual member school districts lack capacity, inasmuch as the State shares “the traditional principle throughout the United States . . . that municipalities and other local governmental corporate entities and their officers lack capacity to mount constitutional challenges to acts of the State and State legislation” (City of New York v State of New York, 86 NY2d 286, 289 [1995]; see Matter of County of Oswego v Travis, 16 AD3d 733, 735 [2005]). Additionally, “[mjunicipal officials and members of municipal administrative or legislative boards suffer the same lack of capacity to sue the State with the municipal corporate bodies they represent” (City of New York v State of New York, supra at 291). Regardless of its members’ lack of capacity, the Association claims its own capacity to sue because it is a private, not-for-profit organization (see N-PCL 202 [a] [2]). We hold, however, that the Association’s apparent capacity to sue as a private entity does not afford it capacity to bring the instant suit on behalf of its members. Just as “standing cannot be achieved merely by multiplying the persons a group purports to represent,” neither can the capacity to sue be achieved by massing together entities that lack individual capacity (Society of Plastics Indus. v County of Suffolk, 77 NY2d 761, 775 [1991]).

Further, even were we to find that the Association had the legal capacity to bring the instant suit, it lacks organizational standing (see id.). The concepts of standing and capacity to sue [650]*650are “conceptually distinct” but certainly “allied” (Matter of Graziano v County of Albany, 3 NY3d 475, 478-479 [2004]). Indeed, where no member of the Association has the substantive right to bring suit against the State, the Association cannot rely on its interests to predicate its right to bring this action (see Grumet v Board of Educ. of Kiryas Joel Vil. School Dist., 187 AD2d 16, 19 [1992], mod 81 NY2d 518 [1993], affd 512 US 687 [1994]).

Next, we address the individual school board members’ claim to citizen taxpayer standing pursuant to State Finance Law § 123-b.

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Bluebook (online)
42 A.D.3d 648, 840 N.Y.S.2d 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-state-assn-of-small-city-school-districts-inc-v-state-nyappdiv-2007.