Williams v. Colwell

18 Misc. 399, 43 N.Y.S. 720, 26 N.Y. Civ. Proc. R. 66
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 18 Misc. 399 (Williams v. Colwell) 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
Williams v. Colwell, 18 Misc. 399, 43 N.Y.S. 720, 26 N.Y. Civ. Proc. R. 66 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1896).

Opinion

Laughlin, J.

On the sale of the premises, described in the complaint, by referee duly appointed for that purpose in the judgment of’ foreclosure and sale, one Ernest C. Hazard purchased the same for the sum ,of $1,000, subject to. certain incumbrances. The referee’s deed, duly executed, was tendered to Hazard: He declined to complete the purchase upon the ground that the Daily Mercantile Review, in which the notice of sale was published, was not a newspaper within the intent and meaning of the- provision of the Code of Civil Procedure, with reference to publication of notices of sale of real estate in foreclosure actions. Upon this motion it was conceded on the part of the purchaser that all other proceedings were regular and valid and that there is no legal reason why he should not be compelled to complete his: purchase, if the Daily Mercantile Review is a newspaper within the meaning of the-provisions of law referred to.. In behalf of the plaintiff the affidavit of the publisher of the Daily Mercantile Review, and a stipulation of the parties were presented, which show that two editions of the Daily Mercantile Review are published daily .on each day of the week excepting Sunday, and'that'it has a circulation in the city of Buffalo of .1,000 and in the county out side the city of 500, and in other parts of the state of Hew York and in twenty-four other states and in the province of Ontario, Canada, of 3,600; that it publishes the records from the county 'clerk’s office of judgments, satisfactions of judgments, chattel mortgages, real estate mortgages, assignments and discharges of same, deeds, mechanics’ liens and discharges of same, notices of pendency of actions, bills of sale, the court calendars and decisions,. a synopsis of the proceedings of the courts in Erie county, also a review of the Hew York and Chicago stock, grain aiid produce markets, of the Buffalo flour and grain markets,, of the Buffalo prices of local' securities and bank stocks, railway time cards, official time-table of the departure of the mails, the live-stock markets of Buffalo, Hew York, St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha, the Buffalo coal, hide and leather, wool and sheep, produce -and grocery [401]*401markets, and prices of the various building materials, “together with news óf a general character each, day relating to financial and mercantile matters and local affairs, * * * and extensive reports of telegraphic news from all portions of the United States and abroad, containing matters of general interest to the public; and also reports of sporting news and other items of general public interest; and that other items of general interest cover from two. to three columns of said paper. * * ■'* Also many ■ advertisements of all kinds and descriptions.” And that it has among its subscribers 250 lawyers and law firms, 16 bankers, 1.90 real estate men, and many merchants, contractors, manufacturers, builders and commission men; and that a large number of legal notices have already been published in said paper; that more than 45Q have been published therein since February,. 1894, the great majority thereof having been published during-the past six-months; and that more than 115 different law firms in Buffalo cause their legal notices, including notices of sale of real estate under foreclosure, to be published therein; and it appears that the Daily Mercantile Review has been frequently designated by the different judges of the courts of record as a newspaper for the publication of legal notices.

These facts are not controverted by the purchaser, but are, in fact, stipulated by him to be trae, and he presents no affidavit in opposition to the motion, but merely a stipulation to the effect that the paper is not-sold by the newsboys or at the news stands but only by subscription and on application to the office of the publisher.

Annexed to the stipulation are copies of the morning and evening editions of the Review of August 28, 1896, that being one of the days on which the notice in question was inserted therein.

The Century Dictionary defines a newspaper as “ a paper containing’news; a sheet containing intelligence or reports of passing events, issued at short but regular intervals and either sold or distributed gratis; a public print, or daily, or weekly, or semiweekly periodical, that presents the news .of the day, such as the doings of political, legislative or other public bodies, local, provincial, or national current events, items of public interest on science, religion, commerce, as well as trade, market and money reports, advertisements and announcements, etc. Newspapers may be classed as general, devoted to the dissemination of intelligence on a great variety of topics which are of interest to the general reader, or special, in which some particular subject, as [402]*402Religion/ temperance, literature,-law, etc., 'has-prominence, , general news-occupying-only a.secondary place:’’ . . .. ... .....

Other lexicographers' employ other language,-but of substantially -the- same import in defining this word.

< Burrill, in-his Law Dictionary, gives the following definition of newspaper: “A paper or publication conveying news or-intelligence'. -A printed publication issued in numbers at' stated intervals conveying intelligence of passing events. The term ‘newspaper’ is-popularly applied -only to" such publications as are issued-.in a single sheet, and'af short intervals, as daily or weekly.”

' - The same definition, is given" in-Abbott’s Law Dictionary, and was long ago given by'the attorney-general of the United States with respect to the Postal Laws. 4 Opinions Attorney-General, 10.

In 1851, the same definition was given by the English Court of Exchequer in interpreting the Duty Laws. Attomey-General v. Bradbury, 7 Exch., W. H. & G. 97.

1 Counsel were unable to' cite and I have been unable to find any precedent in the reporte of our own state Upon this question. There have been, however, many decisions of the highest courts of other states, which materially assist in reaching a correct determination of this controversy.

In 1870, in Kellogg v. Carrico, 47 Mo., 157, a trust deed provided for a sale of land after thirty days’public notice in some newspaper; notice was published" in the Legal Record & Advertiser, printed in St. Louis in the form - of - a newspaper and- issued to subscribers daily except Sunday. It was devoted to the. dissemination of general légal intelligence and engaged extensively in legal advertising, including the publication of notices of sale under deeds of trusts "and sales on .execution and judicial sales; it circulated particularly among real estate lawyer's, and those giving special -attention to réal -éstate sales at public vendue. The court said:, To that extent it was eminently well adapted to serve the purposes óf the parties to. the deed óf trust, in requiring the sale by the 'trastees to bó advertised in some newspaper. * *■ * It was a law and advertising journal and so, in a limited sense, at least; a newspaper; for whether a newspaper or not is a question that cannot be determined by a consideration alone of the kind of intelligence it disseminated. * * * Á paper-devoted to the gathering up and dissemination of legal news among its readers 'is,- or at least may be, a newspaper. "I"regard the Legal Record as a news'paper -of that character.”

[403]*403This decision was reaffirmed in Benkendorf v. Vincenz, 52 Mo. 441.

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Bluebook (online)
18 Misc. 399, 43 N.Y.S. 720, 26 N.Y. Civ. Proc. R. 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-colwell-nysupct-1896.