166 A.D. 573 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1915
The following is the opinion of the court below:
This action is brought by plaintiff as assignee of Julius Simpson to recover the sum of $912.50, alleged to be due his assignor as an inspector in the tenement house department of the city of New York from March 25, 1906, to April 25, 1912, being the difference between the amount of salary paid to him at the rate of $1,200 per annum and the amount to which he claims he was entitled at the rate of $1,350 per annum. The plaintiff’s assignor was notified on September 21, 1905, by the municipal civil service commission of his appointment as tenement house inspector, with a yearly salary of $1,200, after having been previously notified of his appointment at the same salary by the tenement house commissioner by letter dated September 11, 1905. By a resolution of the board of estimate and apportionment, adopted April 30, 1902, pursuant to section 10 of the Greater New York charter, the salary of tenement house inspector was fixed at $1,200 per annum. Thereafter, on February 13, 1903, by resolution of the board of estimate and apportionment, passed February 13, 1903, concurred in by the board of aldermen March 3, 1903, and approved by the mayor March 9, 1903, it was provided “that the salaries of the following employees in the tenement house department be fixed as follows: Inspectors of tenements, per annum, $1,350; inspectors of tenements, per annum, $1,650; inspectors of tenements, per annum, $1,800.” The passage of this resolution was preceded by a written communication from the tenement house commissioner, dated February 7, 1903, requesting the board of estimate and apportionment to fix the salaries of such employees in said amounts. This letter contained the following statement: “We find it desirable in the Department to have these intermediate grades. Your honorable board fixed the salaries of inspectors of tenements in April, 1902, at $1,200 and $1,500. It is now, however, considered desirable to have these two intermediate grades so that we may promote men from $1,200 to $1,350 without the necessity of promoting them at one step two grades.” On July 11, 1902, the position of inspector was included in the graded class and continued as such until December 4, 1903, when it was taken therefrom and placed in the ungraded class. This latter classification remained in effect
Made Gen. Laws, chap. 3, by Laws of 1900, chap. 195; now Civil Service Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 7; Laws of 1909, chap. 15), § 16.—[Rep.