Cowdrey v. Town of Caneadea

• Decision Date: 01 June 1883
• Citation: 16 F. 532
• Parties: COWDREY v. TOWN OF CANEADEA.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

16 F. 532

COWDREY v. TOWN OF CANEADEA.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. New York.

June 1, 1883

Isaac S. Newton, for plaintiff.

Hamilton Ward, for defendant.

WALLACE J.

If the defendant was never authorized to create its bonds, and the commissioners who issued them were not the agents of the defendants for that purpose, the plaintiff cannot recover upon the coupons in suit. Purchasers of municipal bonds executed by agents, must ascertain at their peril that the delegated authority assumed has been conferred. The commissioners here were appointed by the county judge of Allegany county, in a proceeding in which he was exercising a special statutory jurisdiction, by virtue of chapter 917 of the Laws of 1869, as amended by chapter 925 of the Laws of 1871. These acts authorizing municipal corporations to aid in the construction of railroads, delegate to a portion of the tax-payers of a municipality the power to create a debt against the consent of other tax-payers, and subject the property of all to taxation for its payment.

The special character of the jurisdiction exercised by the county judge, and the nature of the power invoked by the tax-payers who set the proceeding in motion, both require that the proceeding be strictly pursued. The authority of a majority of the tax-payers of a town to incumber the property of a minority, against their will, in aid of a railroad or other corporation, receives no countenance from the principles of the common law. Every step, therefore, required by the statute must be in strict conformity therewith. People v Hulburt, 46 N.Y. 110. The rule is also inflexible that when a court or judicial officer exercises a special statutory power outside the scope of the usual jurisdiction of courts of general powers, the record of the proceedings must show that the statutory authority has been pursued; and in this regard the proceedings are on the same footing with those of courts of limited and inferior jurisdiction. Denning v. Corwin, 11 Wend. 647; Thatcher v Powell, 6 Wheat. 119; Dyckman v. New York, 5 N.Y. 434; Betts v. Bagley, 12 Pick. 572; Town of Huntington v. Town of Charlotte, 15 Vt. 46; Morse v. Presby, 25 N.H. 299.

The application of these principles to the case in hand is fatal to the validity of the proceedings in question. It is apparent from the record, beginning with the petition and ending with the adjudication and appointment of the commissioners by the county judge, that the proceeding was initiated, conducted, and completed according to the provisions of the original act of 1869, and in disregard of the essential modifications introduced by the act of 1871. The act of 1871 altered the quorum of tax-payers whose consent was indispensable to the creation of the debt. As is stated in the opinion of the court...