Case ID: misc_10/html/0272-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Clement, Oh. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the Matter of the Application of Matilda A. Popoff for a Writ of Mandamus.
    (City Court of Brooklyn
    General Term,
    November, 1894.)
    A mandamus cannot issue to compel the performance of an act which the law prohibits.
    The board of assessors of the city of Brooklyn can only correct errors where section 10 of title X of the revised charter permits, and not otherwise.
    A clerical error in an assessment roll is an error of form, and not an error of the assessors in levying the assessment, nor an error of law.
    Appeal from an order denying a motion for a mandamus directing the board of assessors to strike from the assessment list so much of an assessment for a city improvement against the petitioner’s land as exceeds the assessed value of such land.
    The assessed value of petitioner’s lot is $120. The assessment as first laid and confirmed by the common council was $103, but subsequently, as the contract for the work was let at a sum in excess of the estimated cost, said- assessment was increased to $175.
    
      
      Sidney V. Lowell, for appellant.
    
      Albert G-. McDonald, for respondent.
   Clement, Oh. J.

By section 10 of title X of the revised charter of this city (Laws of 1888, p. 995) the board of assessors have power to rectify any error in an assessment for a local improvement only in five cases, and the facts now before us do not come under either of such cases. The error of the assessors (if there was error) was not clerical, as in the case of People ex rel. Nostrand v. Wilson, 119 N. Y. 515, where a similar clause in the charter of 1873 was construed by the Court" of Appeals. A clerical error in an assessment roll is an error of form, not an error of the assessors in levying the assessment, nor an error of law. In the Matter of Hermance v. Board of Supervisors, 71 N. Y. 481.

A mandamus will issue, in a proper case, to compel a public officer to perform his duty imposed by law, but it is never issued to compel the performance of an act which the law prohibits. It is clear that the assessors can only correct errors where the section of the charter before referred to permits, and not otherwise.

Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.

Osbobne, J., concurs.

Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements*