113 Misc. 444 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1920
The summons, etc., herein were ordered served by publication in newspapers and (following the language of Code Civ. Pro. § 440) by deposit in a “ post office, branch post office or post office station.” They were deposited in a mail box in No. 280 Broadway (affidavit of service). When the statute, which has since been several times amended, provided that deposit, when not dispensed with alto
In 1916 the Appellate Division of the first department, - speaking by Mr. Justice McLaughlin, held that deposit in post office, station “ R,” in Bronx county, which was not, he said, either a post office or a branch post office, was compliance with the statute. He said: “ If our interpretation of the statute is not correct, then in every case service by mail in local actions must be made by deposit in the general post office in another county, as there is no general post office in Bronx county. Such a construction would lead to an absurdity.” Von Der Heyde v. Ditmars, 174 App. Div. 390, 392. The next legislature amended the statute by including the words “ branch post office or post office station.” Laws of 1917, chap. 98. It was again amended by providing that the order of publication, when it did not dispense with mailing altogether, could provide, if the defendant were in a country at war with the United States or cut off from communication with the United States by war, that the summons, etc., be mailed to the alien property custodian at Washington. Laws of 1918, chap. 309. In the Civil Practice Act, which will take effect next April, the legislature, in providing that service might be made by publication, is entirely silent as to how it may be made. Civ. Prac. Act, § 234. The statute, in pari materia, with section 440 of the Code, is to be
Congress has provided for the maintenance of the Postal SerAdce. U. S. Comp. Stat. 16, tit. XLVI. While post offices, branch post offices, stations, substations and receiving boxes, among other things, are authorized, they are not defined, except that a branch post office is declared to be a place AAdiere mail is both received and distributed. § 7277. Acts of Congress, being the supreme law of the land, are judicially noticed by state courts. Case v. First Nat. Bank, 59 Misc. Rep. 269; Carlin v. N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co., 71 id. 521, 524; Benner v. Atlantic Dredging Co., 134 N. Y. 156, 160. All of these authorized stations and boxes are part of the postal service. All of them, except post offices and branch post offices, function similarly. The United States Court of Claims, speaking of a “ substation,” has said: “A ‘ substation ’ is not to be confounded Avith a 1 branch post office. ’ These ‘ substations ’ are found in cigar shops, apothecary shops and other similar places of public resort and only receive mail. They distribute none. In effect they differ not at all from the ordinary lamp post box — the box is put ‘ indoors ’ instead of remaining ‘ out of doors;’ that is all the difference.” Woolverton v. United States, 34 Ct. Cl. 247. The postmaster-general may authorize receiving boxes to be
But the affidavit of service of the summons, etc., herein is insufficient, for the reason that it only alleged that deposit was made “ in a mail box at 280 Broadway.” Judicial notice cannot be taken that this mail box was one authorized or maintained under the provisions of the postal laws. The ease may be reopened and the necessary proof, it it exists, supplied. Clark v. Vorce, 15 Wend. 193; Williams v. Sargeant, 46 N. Y. 481; People v. Ferrone, 204 id. 551, 553; 26 R. C. L., tit. Trial, § 48. Such proof must be made before December first next.
Decreed accordingly.