5 N.Y.S. 600 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1889
The trial court found, in substance, that the relators had no valid contract with the board of supervisors, under which they sought an audit at the alleged contract price, and now seek by mandamus to compel such an audit. The relators did have a contract signed by the chairman of the committee of the board of supervisors on lands and buildings, in which the board is recited as the contracting party. An examination of the authority vested by the board in this committee shows that it was limited to authority
It is contended by the defendant that the board of supervisors could not delegate to a committee the power to approve the plans, details, and price of the work, including the making of the contract for building the fence. It is not easy to draw the exact line between those duties which are, by the statute, committed to the judgment and discretion of the entire board, and whose performance, therefore, cannot be delegated to a committee or agent, and those purely ministerial and executive duties which the board may delegate to a committee, or even to an employó or servant. Thompson v. Schermerhorn, 6 N. Y. 92, and Birdsall v. Clark, 73 N. Y. 73, show that acts which embrace the plan of a local improvement, to result in a tax, to be paid by the owners of property along the line of the improvement, cannot be delegated. Edwards v. City of Watertown, 24 Hun, 428, is to the effect that a common council may authorize a committee to buy the necessary furniture for its chamber.
I incline to the opinion that, in so far as such a body exercises governmental functions such as the imposition of a tax or the adoption or ordering of any act in the nature of a governmental or administrative regulation, the whole body must act, but, in so far as it is a mere business corporation, it may delegate the execution of its mechanical and physical work to agents, like any other corporation. I should think the building of a board fence around a farm lot such a piece of business. But it is not necessary to decide this question, for the reason that in this case the committee on lands and buildings were not authorized to enter into any contract. They were authorized to take all the steps preliminary to the execution of the contract, and no more. The preamble accompanying a resolution which was subsequently offered in the board falls short of a ratification of the action of the committee, because no action upon the resolution is shown, and hence no ratification is shown. Failure to show what was done with the resolution is a failure to show ratification. The board did something or nothing, and we are not advised which. The relators, not having a valid contract, are not entitled to a mandamus to compel an audit upon the basis of a contract price. All they could ask was