People ex rel. City of Geneva v. Board of Supervisors

50 Misc. 63, 100 N.Y.S. 330
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 50 Misc. 63 (People ex rel. City of Geneva v. Board of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. City of Geneva v. Board of Supervisors, 50 Misc. 63, 100 N.Y.S. 330 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1906).

Opinion

Sutherland, J.

This proceeding is brought by the relator to compel the board of supervisors of Ontario county to convene and reapportion, among the various towns of the county and the city of Geneva, the amount required to be raised therein for State and county taxes for the year 1906, in order to correct an error of the board of 1905 in its apportionment made December 14, 1905. It seems that the total amount of taxes to be raised by the county of Ontario in the year 1906 for State and county purposes was estimated by the board at $108,600.39, and that the aggregate real estate of the county, as assessed and equalized, amounted to $28,883,664, and that the aggregate taxable personal property of the county, for the purpose of arriving at a tax rate, was estimated at $3,522,332. In this estimate of the amount of personal property, the board included $5-5,919.74, the value of the shares of stock of banks in the city of Geneva, assessable under section 24 of the Tax Law; and the shares of stock of banks engaged in business in the town of Canandaigua in said county, taxable under said section 24, were also included, at a valuation of $262,391.26, making a total of bank stock valuation of $788,311 included in the aggregate personalty of the county. In estimating Geneva’s share of that total valuation, the board equalized the real estate of said city at $5,795,046, and its aggregate personal property at $1,447,169, in which latter amount is included the value of the shares of the Geneva banks. The share of the total tax upon Ontario county for State and county purposes which this method of equalization would place upon the city of Geneva amounts to .$24,270.42, and that was the amount which the board determined that city should pay for those purposes. The relator is represented in the county board by [65]*65one supervisor, who voted against the resolution fixing the equalization of Geneva at those figures. On December 13th, one day before the equalized value was fixed as before stated, the supervisor of Geneva offered a resolution that, in fixing the equalized value of the personal property in the county and in the city of Geneva, the bank stock valuation should be deducted. This resolution was defeated and the other plan adopted and the tax-rolls were signed by the board on December 14th, on which day the board adjourned its annual meeting sine die.

It seems clear that the method adopted by the board in this case was improper. The amount of State and county taxes to be raised in the county of Ontario being fixed and 'ascertained at $108,600.39, the share thereof to be raised within the city of Geneva is determined by the ratio which the amount of property in the city of Geneva, assessed and taxable for that purpose, bears to the entire property within the county, assessed and taxable for that purpose. Under section 24 of the Tax Law, the one per cent, tax levied upon the value of the bank stocks is not applicable toward the payment of the $108,600.39. That amount must be raised from the real and personal property of the county taxable for general purposes, exclusive of the bank stocks specially taxed under section 24. The tax upon bank stocks under this section is raised for local purposes and divided among the local tax districts for village or city, town or school purposes only; no part of it goes to the county or State; and section 24 provides that: “ The said tax shall be in lieu of all other taxes whatsoever for state, county or local purposes upon the said shares of stock The equalization which the board should have made would have fixed the aggregate real estate of the county taxable for State and county purposes at $28,883,664, and the aggregate personal property of the county taxable for said purposes at $2,734,021; and would have fixed the real estate of Geneva, assessable for such purposes, at $5,795,046, and the personal property in Geneva, taxable for such purposes, at $921,250.

Upon such a basis, the proportion of the entire sum to be raised for State and county purposes in the city of Geneva [66]*66would be $23,059.11. By the method actually adopted, the amount apportioned to Geneva was $24,270.42, making an illegal excess cast upon the real and personal property of the taxpayers of Geneva, exclusive of the bank" stocks referred to, of $1,211.31.

This proceeding was instituted by the service of an order to show cause December 21, 1905, granted December 20th by Hr. Justice Dunwell, requiring the board of supervisors to show cause, at a Special Term of this court appointed to be held December 23d, why an order should not be made directing that a peremptory writ of mandamus issue, requiring the board forthwith to reconvene and to reapportion the taxes among the several towns within the county and city of Geneva in accordance with the terms of the resolution introduced December 13th by the supervisor of Geneva, omitting from the aggregate personal property, for the purposes of said equalization, the bank stock aforesaid. Before the order to show cause was served upon the chairman of the board, several of the tax-rolls with the warrants annexed had been delivered to the proper collectors; and other rolls were delivered to other town collectors on the return day of the order. The motion was not heard on that day, but a stipulation was signed by the clerk of the board, reciting that he had been authorized by the chairman of the board to sign the same and, also, reciting that the board desired to avoid the expense of calling a special meeting before the return day and that, as a meeting of the board had already been called for January 9, 1906, it was stipulated that the hearing should be adjourned until January 13, 1906; and the stipulation then continues as follows: At which time the defendant may appear and interpose and avail itself of any defense to said proceeding which it might urge on the return of said order, it being understood that this proceeding shall continue and apply to the new board of supervisors with the same force and effect as it does to the present board ”: and also, “ that on the hearing herein the defendant will not urge or claim any advantage on account of such adjournment, or claim or urge any defense herein of which it might not avail itself with like force and effect on the return day named in [67]*67said order.” The motion was not made on January 13th, but was first heard by this court on January 22'd, at which time counsel for the board not only contended that the method of equalization was right upon the merits, but that this proceeding could not be maintained because the board had exhausted its powers in the premises and could not be reconvened for the purpose of correcting an error in the equalization and apportionment, if any error had been made. And it is also urged, on behalf of the board, that the city of Geneva, in its capacity as a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the county, has no legal capacity to vindicate the rights of the taxpayers of Geneva in this proceeding, even if they are assessed, relatively, for too high a figure.

But the relation of the city of Geneva to the State and county tax upon the assessable property therein is peculiar, as those taxes are not spread in the usual way by the board of supervisors upon the tax-roll for the' city of Geneva, and no warrant for the collection thereof is issued by the board, as in the ease of the towns; but, under the charter of the city (Laws of 1897, chap. 360, § 114), it is provided as follows:

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Related

People ex rel. City of Geneva v. Board of Sup'rs
100 N.Y.S. 1136 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1906)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 Misc. 63, 100 N.Y.S. 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-city-of-geneva-v-board-of-supervisors-nysupct-1906.