24 A.D.2d 602 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1965
Proceeding by certain owners of real property in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, under article 78 of the CPLR: (a) to annul a determination of the Town Board of said town, made September 23, 1963 after a hearing, which refused its consent to a proposed annexation of certain territory in the town to the Village of Spring Valley, on the ground that said territory did not adjoin that village; and (b) to compel the Town Board to consent to the proposed annexation. By order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County, dated June 29, 1964, and entered June 30, 1964 in Rockland County, the proceeding has been transferred to this court for disposition. Determination of the Town Board annulled, with costs; petition granted; and the Town Board directed to execute its consent to the proposed annexation. As the annexation petition was made in 1963, the controlling statute is former section 348 of the Village Law (Nebel v. Town of Ramapo, 23 A D 2d 821). Under that statute the granting of consent to annexation was a ministerial act, if the petition complied with the statute’s procedural requirements (Village Law, § 348; Matter of Wright v. Ransom, 307 N. Y. 317, 321; Matter of Cutler v. Herman, 3 N Y 2d 334, 338-339; Nebel v. Town of Ramapo, supra). As the only ground for the Town Board’s refusal of consent was its finding that petitioners’ property did not adjoin the village, the board would have to grant its consent if that