5 Denio 517 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1848
The board of supervisors of a county acquire their powers by statute. These are specific and limited in their character, and cannot be transcended. In auditing and allowing accounts they cannot admit a claim against the county upon any notions of their own of its equity. (People v. Lawrence, 6 Hill, 244.) The powers given them are “ to examine, settle and allow all accounts chargeable against the county, and to direct the raising of such sums as may be necessary to defray the same.” (1 R. S. 366, 7, § 4, subd. 2.) What are to be deemed county charges is declared 1 R. S. 385, § 3. Among them are.“the sums necessarily expended in the support of county poor-houses and of indigent persons whose support is chargeable to the county.” (Subd. 12.) In relation to the support of the county poor, it is made the duty of the superintendents of the poor to present annually to the board of supervisors an estimate of the amount necessary for the support of the county poor for the ensuing year, and the supervisors are to cause such sum as they may deem necessary for that purpose
The proper mode by which a board of supervisors renders itself legally liable, is by resolution entered in its minutes. Its clerk is to make entries of all resolutions or decisions on questions concerning the raising or payment of moneys. (1 R. S. 367, § 9.) If a resolution of this character was within the powers of the board to adopt, the treasurer was bound to pay the money mentioned in it, upon production of a certified copy. (People v. Lawrence, supra.) It is understood to be usual, instead of a certified copy of the claim and resolution auditing it to present to the treasurer, for the clerk of the board to draw an order on him for the amount allowed by the resolution. This is, in fact, only certifying the resolution in another and more convenient form. What the clerk of the board usually did in other cases, all the supervisors, as individuals, unite in doing in this case. The order is drawn upon the treasurer, signed by all the supervisors, instead of the single signature of the clerk. This, I apprehend, is mere evidence of what the
The defendants, however, go back of the resolution and prove that nearly all the orders held by the bank, which were then given up and cancelled, had been previously paid by the treasurer. This evidence was taken subject to objection, but it wTas clearly admissible in the aspect in which I have examined the case. The vitality of orders once paid by the treasurer was destroyed, and they could not afterwards become a claim in the plaintiff’s hands against the county. But to account for its possession of paid orders, the plain iff shows that its cashier exchanged with the treasurer unpaid orders, which were few in number, for' a large number of small jurors’ certificates and
Beardsley, Ch. J., concurred in the result without expressing an opinion upon the reasons therefor.
Motion granted.