Shields v. Mayor

• Decision Date: 07 June 1893
• Citation: 27 A. 803,55 N.J.L. 495
• Parties: SHIELDS, County Collector, v. MAYOR, ETC., OF CITY OF PATERSON et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

27 A. 803

55 N.J.L. 495

SHIELDS, County Collector,

v. MAYOR, ETC., OF CITY OF PATERSON et al.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

June 7, 1893.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Original action by Patrick H. Shields, collector of Passaic county, against the city of Paterson and others, for mandamus. Writ granted.

Argued February term, 1893, before DEPUE, LIPPINCOTT, and ABBETT, JJ.

Dewitt C. Bolton and William Nelson, for relator.

Thomas C. Simonton, for respondents.

ABBETT, J. This is an application for a peremptory mandamus to compel the mayor and aldermen of Paterson to appropriate, raise, and order the payment of $158,334.84 to the county collector of the county of Passaic, for state school and county taxes, and to direct Daniel Miller, the comptroller of Paterson, to draw his warrant therefor, and the city treasurer to pay said sum to the county collector. The facts upon which this application is based are as follows: On May 11, 1892, the board of chosen freeholders of the county of Passaic adopted a resolution directing the assessors of the respective cities and townships in the county of Passaic to assess the sum of $349,469 upon the inhabitants of the cities and townships of the said county and their estates. On or about May 25, 1892, the county collector received from the state comptroller a notice that the amount of tax levied for the support of free public schools upon the real and personal property in Passaic county for the year 1892 was $123,080.69, with notice that the same was due and payable into the state treasury on or before January 1, 1893. This statement the county collector laid before the assessors of the townships and wards of said county at their annual meeting held next after he received the same. The county board of assessors, on August 4, 1892, adjusted, fixed, ascertained, and apportioned the proportion of the sums aforesaid to be levied and collected in each city and township in said county, and on August 4, 1892, delivered to the county collector an abstract of all the ratables in each city, ward, and township in said county as returned by the said assessors of the county of Passaic for the year 1892, together with a statement of the proportion of the said state school tax apportioned to the said county by said state comptroller, and of the said county tax so ordered to be raised by the said board of chosen freeholders, and, as adjusted, fixed, ascertained, and apportioned by said board of assessors, to be levied and collected in each city and township in said county; which abstract and apportionment was signed and sworn to by said assessors, or by a majority of them, according to law. It appears by said abstract and apportionment that the proportion of the state school tax to be levied and collected in said city was $270,599.49. On June 2, 1892, the board of aldermen had passed the annual tax ordinance for 1892, which directed that $875,487 be raised by taxation to defray the expenses of the said city for the current fiscal year, and for the payment of state school and county taxes required to be paid by said city, etc. By section 3 of said ordinance it was declared that of the said moneys mentioned the following sums were necessary for and appropriated for the purposes therein set forth, to wit: City share of county tax, $207,575; city share state school tax, $95,000. The city of Paterson has paid said sum of $207,575 to the county collector, claiming that said amount was its just share of the county tax, but has failed to pay either the state school tax or the balance of $03,024.49 due on the county tax. This leaves a deficiency for collection by the county collector from the city of Paterson of $158,324.84. This sum has been demanded by the county collector and is still unpaid.

The objections necessary to consider, which are raised by the city authorities to the payment of these amounts are as follows: (1) That the board of chosen freeholders illegally appropriated money in the county tax resolution of 1892 to cover up and pay outstanding obligations unlawfully incurred in 1891. (2) Because said board of freeholders appropriated more money than was necessary for the actual expense of said county for the fiscal year of 1892, in order to apply the excess to certain outstanding unlawful obligations. (3) That, while it is admitted that the county collector is entitled to $95,300.35 for state school tax, the city claims that it is entitled to an offset of $90,523.96, being the amount apportioned to the city from the state school tax. (4) Because there is no money to the credit of the city of Paterson on the city comptroller's books, and the board has not ordered the warrant drawn on the treasurer for the payment of the amounts claimed. (5) That the city, in the annual tax ordinance passed June 2, 1892, only appropriated $207,575 in payment of the county tax, instead of $270,599.49, and that the city has paid the county collector said sum of $207,575.

The city charter (Laws 1871, p. 808) provides in section 27, among other things, that on or before the second Monday in June in each year the board of aldermen shall by ordinance declare the amount of money necessary for defraying the expense of the said city for the current year, and for all other objects and purposes authorized by said act, and for the payment of all legal debts and liabilities of said city, which sum shall be assessed and collected as thereinafter provided. Under section 41 of said act the commissioners of assessment and revision of taxes, or such of their number as they shall designate for that purpose, shall attend all meetings of the county board of assessors, which shall be convened according to law, and on the day succeeding the adjournment of the annual meeting of said county board said commissioners shall proceed to fix and determine such a percentage upon the gross valuation for that year of the taxable property in said city, as will produce the amount of taxes declared by the board of aldermen to be necessary for state, county, and city purposes; and the said commissioners are directed to complete their lists, assessing to each person, firm, company, or corporation named therein his, her, its, or their proportion of the state, county, and city tax. Section 67 provides that the city comptroller shall, when ordered, draw warrants on the city treasurer for the payment of claims, subject to certain limitations provided in the act. Section 69 provides that whenever the total amount of moneys designated in the tax ordinances and raised by tax for. any specific purpose in any year shall be expended or appropriated, the city comptroller shall immediately notify the mayor, the city treasurer, and the board of aldermen thereof, and no further or other...