90 N.Y.S. 18 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1904
Lead Opinion
Prior to the 4th day of January, 1893, the State Land Board advertised for sale in behalf of the State a tract of 2,950 acres of wild lands and invited bids for the same. Claimant’s bid of five dollars and fifty-seven cents per acre for the entire tract was the highest, and on that day the Forest Commission recommended that claimant’s offer be accepted. It was subsequently discovered, however, that the lands were within a radius of twenty miles of Dannemora State prison, and by section 67, chapter 382 of the Laws of 1889 were prohibited from sale, and for that reason the Forest Commission, on the 26th day of January, 1893, revoked its action and refused to sanction the sale. The matter being brought to the attention of the Legislature, and for the evident purpose of meeting the situation which had arisen, by chapter 208 of the Laws of 1894 the prohibited radius from the prison was reduced to ten miles, and immediately chapter 209 of the Laws of 1894 was enacted, providing that the acts of the Forest Commission in 1893, in relation to the sale of these lands, be ratified and confirmed, and that the Commissioners of the Land Office be authorized to grant the application for such sale and to cause to be executed the necessary deeds of transfer to the purchaser upon the payment of the purchase price bid, adding a provision that no timber should be cut on the lands within a distance of one-half mile of a lake situated therein. Thereafter the Forest Commission, on the approval of the Attorney-General, revived the resolution which it had rescinded and the same was properly approved. On the 21st of June, 1894, the claimant paid $15,540.30 into the State treasury, being the full purchase price at the price per acre bid by him, and a patent was issued to him, not only without warranty, but containing an express stipulation that the conveyance should “ in no wise operate as a warranty of title.” It was subsequently discovered that the prohibition with respect to
This state of affairs being brought to the-attention of the Legislature, it enacted chapter 767 of the Laws of 1900, reading as follows: '
“ Section 1. Jurisdiction is hereby Conferred upon the Court of ■Claims to hear, audit and determine the claim of William W. Wheeler against the State of New York for damages sustained by Mm in consequence of the cancellation, annulling and setting aside •of letters patent executed to him by the People of the State of New York, so far as the same relate to the east half of lot eighty-seven, .township eight, Old Military Tract, in the town of ■ Belmont, in the county of Franklin, and to make an award and render judgment. therefor against the State of New York and in favor of said claimant.”
It is by. virtue of this act that claimant can recover, if at all, the moneys which he paid for and the expenses which he incurred in defending his .title to the lands taken away from him. His letters patent not only contained no warranty of title but expressly stated that they were without warranty. Nor can it be said, as is insisted by the claimant, that the act of the Legislature directing the Land Board to make conveyance' gave him any better title than
The learned Court of Claims concluded that the enabling act was insufficient to permit a recovery and dismissed the claim. In this we think the court was in error. The facts are peculiar, and strong equities in behalf of the claimant are presented.
The State had, in effect, manufactured a title to thfe east half of lot 87, apparently good on its face but confessedly bad when the circumstances of its acquisition were disclosed. The lands were advertised for sale for unpaid taxes. The Comptroller had executed his deed in proper form to the People. Upon the record, therefore, the plaintiff had a right to assume that the People had good title and that he could well pay his money without warranty. But when the manner of acquisition of the title was disclosed and it was shown that there was no sale, that imme'diately upon the property being reached in the order of sale it was withdrawn upon the announcement that it belonged to the People, without permitting any one to bid thereon, the falsity of the title was obvious; but the claimant had no means of knowing these facts until they were disclosed in the abtions brought against him. It then stood that the State by its own improper act had created an apparent title which did not exist, and taken the claimant’s money for lands which he could not hold. The Legislature knowing this, and the part which it had taken in inducing the purchase by reducing the limit to ten miles from Dannemora prison and directing consummation of the sale, and realizing the inequity and unjustness of the State retaining the purchase price which the claimant had paid, passed the enabling act under which the claim was presented. It could not have been the object of the Legislature to still further harass the claimant and make him additional expense in a futile presentation of his claim. Its obvious intention was to admit the justness of his claim and to give power to the Court of Claims to disregard the strictly legal defense of lack of warranty in title and to provide for its audit and allowance by a proper tribunal. This it had the power
Cole v. State of New York (supra) was an action to recover for services performed, without authority, in and about the port of New York. The Legislature passed an act ratifying and confirming the acts of the claimant and conferring jurisdiction upon the Board of Claims to hear, audit and determine. In the course of the opinion confirming the award, Rapallo, J., says: “ The Statute of Limitations and other legal defenses are, under the' general law, available to the State as against a private claim preferred to the Board of Claims, and as a general rule it has been considered that the authority of the Board is confined to the allowance of legal claims; But can it be maintained that it would be beyond the po wer of the Legislature in special cases, where in its judgment justice and right demanded it, to give power to the Board of Claims to disregard defenses strictly legal? We are unable to find in the Constitution anything which deprives the Legislature of the power of giving to the Board of Claims, or any other proper tribunal, jurisdiction to hear and determine claims against the State which are founded in right and justice,
■ solely for the reason that they could not be enforced against an individual in the courts.”
The case of Cayuga County v. State (supra) involved a claim for expenses incurred in trials for crimes committed by prisoners in Auburn prison. There was no obligation on the part of the State to reimburse the county for such expenditures, but the Legislature passed an act permitting the county to present its claim and authorizing the Board of Claims to hear and audit it. In its opinion the court says: “ By necessary implication the Legislature by the act assumed liability to the extent of the money paid by the county for
A claim for printing done without authority from a proper State official was involved in the case of American Bank Note Co. v. State of New York (supra). The enabling act was there held to be a waiver by the Legislature of the defense of lack of authority on the part of the State official and a recovery by the claimant was directed.
In Wrought Iron Bridge Company v. Town of Attica (119 N. Y. 201) O’Brien, J., says : “ The principle that claims supported by a moral obligation and founded in justice, where the power exists to create them, but the proper statutory proceedings are not strictly pursued or for any reason are informal and defective, may be legalized by the Legislature and enforced either against the State itself or any of its political divisions, through the judicial tribunals is, we think, now well settled.”
If it was lawful for the Legislature to enact that technical defenses to claims against the State should be waived with respect to labor performed, moneys expended and materials furnished for its benefit, because those claims were founded in justice and right,, it certainly was not unlawful to direct the waiver of the technical defense of lack of warranty to a claim for money which the State held, the consideration for the payment of which had failed.
It could direct the waiver of such a defense as well as it could lack of authority to contract or the Statute of Limitations. The one would' be as complete a defense as the other. None of the enabling acts in the cases cited, except that in the Cayuga County case, are stronger than the one under consideration, and some of them are much less emphatic.
The court below in its opinion states that it deemed itself controlled by the decision of this court in Killam v. State of New
The judgment should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs of appeal to appellant.
All concurred, except Chase, J., dissenting in memorandum, in which Parker, P. J., concurred,
Chap. 428.— [Ref.
Const. (1874) art. 8, § 10.— [Rep.
Dissenting Opinion
.(dissenting):
I dissent. The patent received was presumably in accordance with the terms of sale under which the claimant purchased. There has never been a suggestion to the contrary. The claimant is not •entitled to a repayment of the consideration by .reason of any contract, express or implied. Before the passage of the act (Laws of 1900, chap. 767) the claimant was wholly unable to establish a claim against the State, even if the State failed to interpose a defense thereto. The act, therefore, was not for the purpose of avoiding a legal, but unconscionable defense, but as construed by a majority of this court it, in effect, is to establish and allow a private claim against the State where none had theretofore existed. It is much more than an act to avoid a technical defense or cure some irregularity in procedure. I am opposed to a determination in favor of the authority of the Legislature to create and allow a claim against the State, whenever it is thought that there is some general equity, although not amounting to an enforcibje equity therefor. Under the act as construed the Court of Claims is a mere accountant.
Parker, P. J., concurred.
Judgment reversed on law and facts and new trial granted, with -costs of appeal to appellant.
