293 N.Y. 330 | NY | 1944
Lead Opinion
The plaintiffs, residents and taxpayers of the City of Albany, challenge the validity of chapter 206 of the Laws of 1944 entitled: "An act relating to jurors and commissioners of jurors in counties having a population of not less than two hundred thousand and not more than two hundred fifty thousand and containing a city with a population of one hundred twenty-five thousand or more." The Act purports to define the powers and duties of the Commissioner of Jurors in such counties and to regulate the manner of selecting jurors. It provides, among other things, that the Commissioner shall not place on the list of jurors "any person who has served as a trial or grand juror during the three years preceding the preparation of such list". No county except the County of Albany contains a city with a population of 125,000 and has a population of not less than 200,000 and not more than *333 250,000, and at present the statute does not apply in any other county.
Article III, section 17 of the Constitution provides: "The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases * * * Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors." Since the challenged Act does provide for "Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors" it is of course invalid if the bill is "local" within the meaning of that section of the Constitution. The plaintiff contends, and the court below has held, that the Act violates not only section 17 of article III, but also article IX, section 1-b of the Constitution. The appellants maintain that the latter section of the Constitution does not apply to bills in the "cases" specified in article III, section 17. We do not reach that question if the Act is "local" within the meaning of article III, section 17.
The intent of the restriction placed by that section of the Constitution upon the exercise of legislative power is plain. Other sections of the Constitution confer governmental powers upon local units of government within defined fields and regulate or even prohibit interference within those fields by the Legislature. (City of New York v. Village of Lawrence,
This court has from the beginning recognized that a law relating to a matter of State concern and applicable to all municipal corporations or localities in a class based upon population or upon proximity to great centres of population may be a general law though only a single municipal corporation or locality can at the time receive its benefits. (Matter of N YElevated R.R. Co.,
The defendants do not contend that the challenged statute would be general if in terms it applied only to the County of Albany. They contend only that since the statute is in terms applicable to a class of counties based on population and since "good reasons exist why, in a general law, reference may be had to conditions of population whether in counties, cities, towns or villages" the Act is general and not local, though only the County of Albany can in the actual situation receive its benefits. That is true only if the conditions of population referred to may be "recognized as possibly common to a class, or which might permit of classification." In many cases sinceMatter of Henneberger (supra) beginning with People v.Dunn (
The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
Dissenting Opinion
Chapter 206 of the Laws of 1944, entitled "An Act relating to jurors and commissioners of jurors * * *", prescribes procedure by which are selected grand jurors (§ 8) and trial jurors (§ 4). "The jurors, when drawn, become a part of the court having governmental *337
duties to discharge." (Matter of Allison v. Welde,
Accordingly I dissent and vote for reversal and the dismissal of the complaint.
LOUGHRAN, RIPPEY, CONWAY, DESMOND and THACHER, JJ., concur with LEHMAN, Ch. J.; LEWIS, J., dissents in opinion.
Judgment affirmed. *338