Fagan v. State Bd. of Assessors
| Citation | 77 A. 1023,80 N.J.L. 516 |
| Parties | FAGAN v. STATE BOARD OF ASSESSORS. |
| Decision Date | 20 October 1910 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey) |
(Syllabus by the Court.)+++++ Mandamus by the State, on the relation of Mark M. Pagan, against the State Board of Assessors. On rule to show cause why a writ of mandamus alternative or peremptory should not issue directed to the State Board of Assessors and the clerk of the State Board of Assessors directing them and each of them to permit the relator at proper times and places and under proper supervision to examine and take copies of the records and returns of the various railroad and other companies mentioned in the affidavit filed with them and holding property in the county of Hudson. Rule made absolute.
Argued June term, 1910, before GARRISON, SWAYZE, and VOORHEES, JJ.
Merritt Lane, for the rule.
Edmund Wilson, Atty. Gen., opposed.
Upon the principles laid down by this court in the case of Ferry v. Williams, 41 N. J. Law, 332, 32 Am. Rep. 219 (Dixon, J., 1879), the present application should be granted. Every general principle on which this court acted in that case is applicable to this. To rehearse them Would he to reprint Mr. Justice Dixon's opinion. I am at a loss to see upon what ground not covered by the case cited the defendant can claim that these schedules are of a confidential nature or possessed of any private character that was not possessed by the recommendations for liquor licenses filed with the collector of taxes in the case of Ferry v. Williams. In each case the document was one required by public law to be made for a public purpose and to be lodged with a public officer as the basis of the performance of a public duty in which all citizens had an interest. These were the pertinent conditions to which the general principles enunciated by Justice Dixon were applied in the case cited. They all exist in the present case, which is, indeed, the stronger of the two by as much as matters of taxation concern the citizens more universally than does the local licensing of inns and taverns. In either case what is there of a confidential character about these records, or on what can the public officers base their claim of privacy? I can readily see how a railroad company that had for its own purposes prepared such a schedule of its taxables for the information of its stockholders or of investors might successfully resist the requests of the taxing officers to inspect such list upon the ground that it was a private...
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U.S. v. Mitchell
...See, e.g., State ex rel. Colescott v. King, 154 Ind. 621, 57 N.E. 535 (1900); Nowack v. Fuller, supra note 16; Fagan v. State Board of Assessors, 80 N.J.L. 516, 77 A. 1023 (1910); State ex rel. Wellford v. Williams, 110 Tenn. 549, 75 S.W. 948 (1903); Clement v. Graham, 78 Vt. 290, 63 A. 146......
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N.J. Inc. v. City Of Cape May
...where an application that citizens be permitted to inspect and copy registry lists was granted and in State ex rel. Fagan v. State Board of Assessors, Sup.1910, 80 N.J.L. 516, 77 A. 1023, where an application to inspect railroad returns filed with the State Board of Assessors was likewise g......
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Tagliabue v. North Bergen Tp.
...the issue, said: 'In the Ferry (v. Williams, 41 N.J.L. 332), Higgins (v. Lockwood, 74 N.J.L. 158, 64 A. 184) Fagan (v. State Board of Assessors, 80 N.J.L. 516, 77 A. 1023) and (Taxpayers Association of Cape May, N.J. v. City of) Cape May (2 N.J.Super. 27, 64 A.2d 453) cases, all cited by th......
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Stack v. Borelli
...although his only interest was as a voter and no litigation was intended to which the inspection might be an aid. And in Fagan v. State Board, 80 N.J.L. 516, 77 A. 1023, it was held that a taxpayer has the right to inspect railroad schedules filed pursuant to public law in the office of the......