Case ID: ny_226/html/0595-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

James J. Crozier, Suing for Himself and Other Taxpayers of the Town of Islip, Appellant, v. James F. Richardson et al., Respondents.
    
      Crozier v. Richardson, 178 App. Div. 927, affirmed.
    (Argued March 11, 1919;
    decided April 8, 1919.)
    Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, entered May 18, 1917, affirming a judgment in favor of defendants entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term. This is a taxpayer’s action under section 51 of the General Municipal Law, to recover for the town of 'Islip, in Suffolk county, the amount of two audited bills presented by the defendants Downs and Carey for necessary expenses and disbursements in the discharge of their duties as assessors of the town of Islip, in preparing the assessment rolls of said town for the years 1911 and 1912. The Appellate Division held that “ in an action to enforce restitution and recovery, at the suit of a taxpayer for collusive audit or payment, collusion is the gravamen of the action. Collusion not being proved it is unnecessary in this action to decide the legality of the claims.”
    
      Selah B. Strong for appellant.
    
      Rowland Miles and Ralph C. Greene for respondents.
   Judgment affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: His cock, Ch. J., Chase, Hogan, Cardozo, Pound, McLaughlin and Andrews, JJ.