155 N.Y.S. 937 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1915
Tbe power to establish and permit tbe operation of all ferries using any part of tbe waterfront of tbe city of New York, as constituted by tbe creation of tbe greater city (Hreater N. Y. Charter, § 83), must be held to be exclusively vested in tbe city. This exclusive right impliedly repeals, so far as concerns tbe territorial water rights of tbe city, tbe provision of section 270 of the Highway Law, which empowers county courts and city courts to grant licenses for “ keeping ferries ” in tbe respective counties and cities for limited terms of not exceeding five years. No one has tbe right to set up a public ferry and charge tolls for transportation of persons and property without tbe license of tbe sovereign. Mayor, etc., v. Starin, 106 N. Y. 1, 11; Power v. Village of Athens, 99 id. 592, 598; Chenango Bridge Co. v. Paige, 83 id. 178, 186. The power of .the state to. grant and the city to receive these ferry franchises is undisputed. It was a grant of property and exclusive in its nature. It conveyed from tbe state its property right and vested such right in tbe city. By this grant tbe city did not merely receive tbe political right to establish and regulate ferries, but it received tbe property in tbe ferry fran
Judgment accordingly.