People ex rel. Mott v. Board of Supervisors of the County of Greene

Headnote

Chapter 815 of 1869 — re/jeelwn of elaims under, by supervisors— not conektsive on subsequent boos’d.

Appeal from an order denying a motion for a peremptory mandamus.

This was an application for a mandamos, to compel the respondent to pay the interest due on certain bonds issued by it, and subsequently purchased by the relator. The relator claimed that certain banks in Greene county had been illegally taxed upon capital invested in United States stocks exempt from taxation, and that in pursuance of chapter 215 of 1869 the defendant adjusted and allowed the amount of such illegal taxes, and issued to said banks the bonds of Greene county in repayment for the taxes illegally levied aud collected. The application was resisted on the ground that the bonds were illegally issued. The respondent insisted that the claims of the banks had, at one time, prior to their final passage and allowance, been rejected by the board of supervisors, and that such rejéction was conclusive .upon the banks and the county. The General Term held, however, that, if the banks had been illegally assessed, and paid an undue proportion of the taxes, the county was under a moral obligation to correct the wrong, and repay the moneys illegally assessed. That even, conceding that the action of the respondent under chapter 215 of 1869 was discretionary, yet a refusal to recognize and allow the claims at one time, would not preclude it from a subsequent allowance and payment. That such subsequent action having been so taken, and the claim being thus settled, adjusted and paid, no future.board of supervisors could annul or revoke such former action by resolution. (People ex pel. v. Supervisors of Herkimer, 56 Barb., 452 ; People ex rel. v. Supervisors of Otsego, 53 id., 564 ; affirmed, 51 N. Y., 401 ; Town of Guilford v. Supervisors of Chenango, 13 id., 143;

Supervisors v. ü. S., 4 Wall., 435 ; City of Galena v. Amy, 5 id., 705.)