Walsh v. City of Buffalo

36 N.Y.S. 997, 99 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 438, 72 N.Y. St. Rep. 99, 92 Hun 438
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 36 N.Y.S. 997 (Walsh v. City of Buffalo) 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
Walsh v. City of Buffalo, 36 N.Y.S. 997, 99 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 438, 72 N.Y. St. Rep. 99, 92 Hun 438 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1895).

Opinion

BRADLEY, J.

The purpose of the action was to recover damages for personal injury of the plaintiff alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the defendant. Her injury was caused by a fall while walking on a sidewalk of a street in the city of Buffalo, on or about February 4, 1894. The facts that the injury sustained by her was attributable to the negligence of the defendant, and that she was free from contributory negligence, were conceded at the trial. The only question presented there was whether the plaintiff had filed with the corporation counsel the requisite preliminary notice of intention to commence the action. The city charter provides that:

“The common council shall audit all claims against the city. Unliquidated claims shall be filed with the city clerk, * :s * and if for damages for wrong or injury, when, where and how occasioned, and shall be accompanied by an affidavit that the claim and the items of specification thereof are in all respects just and correct, and that no payments have been made and that no set-off exists, except those stated.” Laws 1891, c. 105, § 15.

The plaintiff’s claim upon which this action is founded, made in the form required by the statute, and duly verified by her affidavit, was served upon the city clerk of the defendant on April 21, 1894.

The city charter also provides that:

“No action or proceeding to recover or enforce any claim against the city shall be brought until the expiration of forty days after the claim has been [998]*998Sled with the city clerk for presentation to the common council for audit an the manner and form aforesaid, and no action shall be maintained against the city for personal injury, unless notice of intention to commence such action shall have been filed with the corporation counsel within six months after such cause of action shall have accrued. * * * All actions brought against the city to recover damages for personal injuries caused by negligence must be commenced within one year from the time of receiving the injuries.” Laws 1891, e. 105, § 16.

This chapter 105 of Laws of 1891 is entitled “An act to revise the charter of the city of Buffalo.” It contains a provision that “all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby répealed.” Id. § 507.

Prior to this act, and in 1886, a general act was passed, entitled *‘An act in relation to certain actions against municipal corporations.” It provided that:

“No action against the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of any city in ¡this state having fifty thousand inhabitants * * * or over for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence of such mayor, aldermen and commonalty, or of any department, board, officer, agent or employee of said corporation, shall be maintained unless the same shall be commenced within one year after the cause of action therefor shall have accrued, nor unless notice of the intention to commence such action and of the time and place at which the injuries were received shall have been filed with the counsel of the corporation or other proper law officer, thereof, within six months after such cause of action shall have accrued.” Laws 1886, c. 572.

This act was applicable to the city of Buffalo. Curry v. City of Buffalo, 135 N. Y. 366, 32 N. E. 80. At the time of its passage, there was no existing statute requiring the service of a preliminary notice ■of intention to sue the city of Buffalo, but there were provisions substantially the same in other respects as those of sections 15,16, c. 105, Laws 1891, in the charter as amended by section 8, c. 479, Laws 1886, which, with the provisions of the general act before mentioned, constituted the requirement to furnish statement of claim to the common ■council, and notice of intent to sue to the corporation counsel. Those were the only provisions on the subject until the passage of the revised charter of 3.891, which provided for the filing of both the statement of claim and notice of intention to sue, as conditions precedent to the right to maintain an action for damages arising from alleged .negligence of the city. The provisions there for notice of intention to commence action does not direct that the notice contain a reference to the time and place at which the injuries were received, as does the provision of the general act of 1886.

The plaintiff, in filing the statement with the city clerk and the notice of intention with the corporation counsel, evidently proceeded upon the direction in the revised charter. The notice was as follows:

“To the Corporation Counsel, Buffalo, N. Y.—Sir: You will please take ■notice that the undersigned, Margaret Walsh, intends to commence an action against the city of Buffalo to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by her by reason of the facts set forth in a statement of claim filed by the said Margaret Walsh with the city clerk of the city of Buffalo on the 21st day of April, 1894.
“Dated Buffalo. N. Y., May 14, 1894.
“Yours, &c., Margaret Walsh, by Perkins and Welch, Her Attys.”

[999]*999Admission of the corporation counsel of service on May 14, 1894, was indorsed on the notice.

In determining whether the legislative intent is to supersede or repeal by implication certain provisions of a statute by a later one, the object to be attained oy a statute is to be taken into consideration, to ascertain whether the purpose of the earlier is comprehended within the provisions of the later statute on the same subject. The design of that referred to was to give information to the city of the nature and cause of the injury, and the time and place when and where and how it was occasioned, as well as notice of intention to sue; and one of the purposes of the act of 1886 evidently was to give the information within six months, to enable the city authorities, at a time as early as that, to proceed to investigate the matter of the claim. The requisite preliminary statement which a claimant is required by the revised charter to file with the city clerk must set forth all the facts in respect to an injury required to appear in the notice of intention prescribed by the act of 1886. If the revised city charter had required the claimant to file the statement with the city clerk within six months after the alleged injury, I should have been inclined to the view that it was intended to prescribe the only rule on the subject in that city; and, therefore, that, by the provisions o'f the revised charter, those of chapter 573 of the Laws of 1886 were, by implication, repealed so far as applicable to the city of Buffalo. But the difficulty is that the limitation of time within which information is given may be important to the city, and the claimant is not required to file the preliminary statement with the city clerk until more than 10 months after the occurrence of the injury complained of. While the provision of the city charter is to the effect merely that a notice of intention to commence the action be filed with the corporation counsel within six months, that of the act of 1886 also requires that the notice give the further information before mentioned. The two statutes, therefore, seem to be in pari materia, and must be taken together in their application to that city. The notice called for by the act of 1886 embraces all that is requisite to comply with the provision of the later one on the subject, so that only one notice to the corporation counsel is necessary.

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Related

Konviser v. State
180 Misc. 2d 174 (New York State Court of Claims, 1999)
Walsh v. City of Buffalo
17 A.D. 112 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1897)
Barnes v. City of Brooklyn
22 A.D. 520 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 N.Y.S. 997, 99 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 438, 72 N.Y. St. Rep. 99, 92 Hun 438, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walsh-v-city-of-buffalo-nysupct-1895.