New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, Inc. v. Coughlin
| Citation | 64 N.Y.2d 660,474 N.E.2d 607,485 N.Y.S.2d 247 |
| Parties | , 474 N.E.2d 607 NEW YORK STATE COALITION FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE, INC., et al., Appellants, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services, et al., Respondents. |
| Decision Date | 11 December 1984 |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals |
Lewis B. Oliver, Harriet B. Oliver and Dorothy M. Keller, Albany, for appellants.
Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen., Albany , for respondents.
William J. Dean and Joan Vermeulen, New York City, for Correctional Ass'n of New York, amicus curiae.
Madeline Kochen and Arthur Eisenberg, New York City, for New York Civil Liberties Union, amicus curiae.
The order of the Appellate Division, 103 A.D.2d 40, 479 N.Y.S.2d 850, should be affirmed, without costs.
In Boryszewski v. Brydges, 37 N.Y.2d 361, 372 N.Y.S.2d 623, 334 N.E.2d 579, this court established a broad right of standing on behalf of taxpayers seeking judicial review of governmental action said to be unconstitutional. That determination was not based on any constitutional right of standing, but rather on the abandonment of previously created impediments to standing (id., at p. 364, 372 N.Y.S.2d 623, 334 N.E.2d 579).
Shortly after our Boryszewski opinion, the Legislature enacted an amendment to subdivision 1 of section 123-b of the State Finance Law, which permits a citizen taxpayer to "maintain an action for equitable or declaratory relief, or both, against an officer or employee of the state who in the course of his or her duties has caused, is now causing, or is about to cause a wrongful expenditure, misappropriation, misapplication, or any other illegal or unconstitutional disbursement of state funds or state property, except that the provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to the authorization, sale, execution or delivery of a bond issue or notes issued in anticipation thereof by the state or any agency, instrumentality or subdivision thereof or by any public corporation or public benefit corporation".
Although this statute does not expressly prohibit the suit or preclude the taxpayers from asserting a common-law right of standing, our decision in Wein v. Comptroller of State of N.Y., 46 N.Y.2d 394, 413 N.Y.S.2d 633, 386 N.E.2d 242 resolves the standing question against taxpayer plaintiffs. * As we noted in Wein, at p. 399, 413 N.Y.S.2d 633, 386 N.E.2d 242: ...
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