123 Misc. 792 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1924
Motion for an injunction pendente lite allowed in a taxpayer’s action brought to perpetually restrain the payment by the defendants the comptroller and chamberlain of the city of New York, of counsel fees and expenses incurred by the defendant Henry in defending himself in certain criminal actions in the years 1920 and 1921 as a police officer of such city. Chapter 758 of the Laws of 1923 specifically authorizes the board of estimate and apportionment “ in its discretion, to audit and allow the expenses, including counsel fees, paid or incurred by Dominick Henry in successfully defending himself in any criminal action in the years nineteen hundred and twenty or nineteen hundred and twenty-one, either upon a trial or other disposition of the indictment, in which it was sought to convict him on account of acts or omissions as an officer of the police force of the said city,” and directed the comptroller to pay the same in the amount so audited. In 1924 the board adopted this resolution: “Resolved that the board of estimate and apportionment, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 758 of the Laws of 1923, hereby audits and allows as a charge against the city counsel fees and expenses in the sum of $29,800.60 incurred by Dominick Henry, an inspector in the police department, in defending himself against criminal actions brought against him in 1920 and 1921; and the comptroller is requested to pay said claim in the manner provided by chapter 758 of the Laws of 1923.” Plaintiff’s attack is directed mainly against the constitutional validity of chapter 758 of the Laws of 1923 within the denouncement of Matter of Chapman v. City of New York, 168 N. Y. 80. The counsel fees and expenses were incurred in connection with two indictments of Henry by the grand jury in New York county, the first indictment being for the crime of willfully omitting to perform a duty required of him as a public officer, and the second indictment being for the crime of perjury alleged to have been committed by him in testifying before the grand jury as to the activities of an assistant district attorney. After the trial on the first indictment in the Court of General Sessions in May, 1920,
Order granted.