Town of Guilford v. Cornell

18 Barb. 615, 1854 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 118
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 10, 1854
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 18 Barb. 615 (Town of Guilford v. Cornell) 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
Town of Guilford v. Cornell, 18 Barb. 615, 1854 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 118 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1854).

Opinion

Crippen, P. J.

The judgment given at special term, is founded entirely upon the invalidity of the act in question; the appeal therefore presents that question for review. If the law is valid and constitutional, then it follows that the judgment appealed from should be reversed.

It is unnecessary to cite authorities to show that the demurrer admits every material allegation in the answer, to be true. Before proceeding to examine the principal question presented by the appeal, it may be useful to advert to some of the facts which stand admitted by the demurrer. Cornell and Clark allege in their answer that they were commissioners of highways, in the town of Guilford, in the year 1836; that the Butternuts and Oxford Turnpike Company took possession of a highway and bridge in said town without having the damages appraised and paid, according to law; that the electors of said town, at an annual town meeting held in the month of February, 1836, passed a resolution authorizing and directing the said commissioners of highways to prosecute the said turnpike company for the wrongful and unlawful taking of said highway and bridge; that said Cornell and Clark, in pursuance of the resolution of said town, and by virtue of their office of commissioners of highways, employed an attorney under whose advice and counsel an action was brought against said turnpike company; that said action was tried at a circuit court in Chenango county, in the month of September, 1839, and a verdict of $250 rendered in favor of said commissioners, on which a. judgment was entered against the turnpike company; an appeal was brought from the judgment, which was afterwards reversed with costs. Cornell and Clark paid said costs as they were compelled to do, and in due time made an application to the auditing board of said town to have the amount of the costs and expenses incurred and paid by them in said action allowed against the town. The auditing board, however, refused to allow said account. Clark and Cornell afterwards prosecuted the town to recover the amount of - their claim for the costs and expenses incurred by them in the action against the turnpike company. This action was referred to three referees, and a report therein made in favor of Cornell [632]*632and Clark against the town, for the sum of $657.22. On the application of the town, the supreme court set aside the report, with costs; the case was then appealed or carried to the court for the correction of errors, and it was there decided in favor of the town. The foregoing recited facts are admitted by the demurrer. And it is also admitted by said demurrer, that Cornell and Clark entered upon the litigation with the turnpike company as officers and agents of the town, and in obedience to said resolution.

¡No one will attempt to deny that where a town, in its corporate capacity, enters into a litigation with individuals or corporations, and authorizes the officers and agents of the town to prosecute actions and incur expenses, such town is bound by the most sacred principles of justice and common honesty to indemnify such officers and agents against all pecuniary loss and damage properly arising out of such litigation; no matter whether the town is successful or not in the litigation, if such failure is not imputable to the negligence or want of honesty of its agents or officers ; the morality of the claim and the liability of the town is no less obligatory than it would be against an individual, in a like case. The accumulated costs of the whole litigation, emanating from the action which was instituted under the direction of a resolution of the town, has been thrown upon Cornell and Clark, and for which by the strict and rigid rules of the common law they have no redress against said town.

The legislature possesses the power to levy and apportion taxation upon all the taxable persons- and property within the state, or within any particular political district or portion of it. It must be conceded, under the facts of this case, that the money awarded to Cornell and Clark under the act of the 5th of February, 1852, should be paid, if at all, by the town of Guilford, and not by the county of Chenango or the state at large. The litigation originated with, and for the benefit of, the town; if the litigation had been successful, the money recovered of the turnpike company would have belonged to the town of Guilford. The legislature was satisfied it was just and proper that the town should remunerate Cornell and Clark for the money [633]*633expended by them in the litigation with the turnpike company; otherwise the act of the 5th of February, 1852, would not haYe been passed.

It is a necessary and safe rule, and one that I deem to be well settled, that the power of taxation is exclusively vested in the legislature. In the case of The Providence Bank v. Billings, (4 Peters, 561,) the court lay down the following rule: “ That the power of legislation, and consequently of taxation, operates on all the persons and property of the body politic. This is an original principle having its foundation in society itself. It is granted by all, for the benefit of all, and resides in the government as part of itself. However absolute the right of an individual may be to his property, it is still in the nature of such right that it must bear a portion of the public burdens; and that portion must be determined and fixed by the legislature. This vital power may be abused by the legislature; but the interest, wisdom and justice of the representative body, and its relations with its constituents, furnish the only security against injustice and excessive taxation, as well as against unwise and improvident legislation.” Again, in 4th Wheaton, 428, the doctrine is clearly laid down, that the power of taxation is essential to the very existence of government, and may be exercised by the legislature on the objects to which it is applicable, to the utmost extent that the goverment may see fit to carry it. In imposing taxes the government acts upon its constituents. The people of the state give to their government a right of taxing themselves and their property; to the exercise of this power there is no limit, except it is founded in the fundamental law. It must be conceded that the power of taxation and the apportionment of taxes and the assigning to each individual his share of the burden, is vested exclusively in the legislature, unless it is restrained by some constitutional provision.

One objection to the validity of the act of the 5th Feb., 1852, is that it violates the first and sixth sections of article one of the constitution. Those sections declare, in substance, that no member of this state shall be disfranchised or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to anv citizen thereof, unless by the [634]*634law of the land or the judgment of his peers. And that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The claim of Cornell 'and Clark against the town of Guilford is predicated upon a statute of the state, which is strictly the law of the land, within the meaning of the constitution. It was urged on the argument, that the act in question is local in its operation, being made applicable only to a single town, and hence it is in derogation of the constitution. It has been decided in several cases that the above sections of the constitution have no application or reference to the taxing power of the legislature. If the construction contended for by the plaintiff’s counsel should be given to the constitution, I am unable to perceive any existing authority or power conferred upon the legislature for the imposition of taxes for any purpose.

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Bluebook (online)
18 Barb. 615, 1854 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/town-of-guilford-v-cornell-nysupct-1854.