The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-17
POLICE BOARD CATCHES 1T.
coon WIZ PUT BACE WITH 3 f-s
FEARS, Par AND COSTS.

TIE ss-er-, Tsr- Iu.,sts thst vines |.
Pones-s- Is Droppea rro- the Force
It Shall Not ne Dose On ee.er-i rrin-
eipies-Hsrs werss Aseut the Accept
sses OF eooSwi.'. Altered R~ssig-suo-.
The General Term OF the Supreme Court has
ordered the reinstatement Of Roundsman John
w. Goodwin, who was dropped from the force
by the Commissioner on Aug. IA, 1889, on the
strength of q resignation he had signed the day
before at the Oak street station, where he was .
patrolman.
Goodwin. who was on sick leave the day he
signed the resignation, drove from his house In
Harlem In a buggy with HIS wife and q dog
down to his physicians house at Second avenue
and Twentieth street. Then they went to .
saloon at Water and Dover streets. They got
n drink and a parrot there and set out again.
Goodwin says that the dog wanted 10 eat the
parrot, and in its efforts to get at the green cres-
ture. which his wife gathered close In her arms,
the dog got its feet tangled up in the lace Of his
wife's dress. Goodwin gave the reins to his wife
SO that he could untangle the dog. The buggy
ran into q truck, and Goodwin. wife. dog. and
parrot were thrown out. Goodwin landed on
his head, but was able to walk. His wife was
severely injured.
Goodwin and his wife were both taken to the
Oak street station, and Mrs. Goodwin was sent
home. Goodwin says that Sergeant Richard +.
Mangan. who was In charge, locked him up for
ten minutes and told him that he would keep
him in a cell all night unless he resigned: Good
win said he was afraid he could not get home
to his sick wife, so he signed his resignation,
but had begun to write the words under pro-
test" when the paper was snatched from him.
An erasure was made about one and n half
inches long where he had begun to write these
words. and over the erasure in another hand was
written "patrolman.' Capt. Edward Carpenter
signed as witness. The police declared that
there had been no duress, and that Goodwin
i jury decided that the resignation was the
result Of duress, and that II had been altered.
The first two writs obtained against the Com
missioners were set aside on technical grounds.
The present writ was obtained TO review the ac-
tion OF the Commissioners in refusing. on Feb.
:, 1893, to review their action in accepting the
resignation. In the decision. which Is written
by presid LIN Justice van n0,i Btpnfi ISstiee p 6ola,sn
that Goodwin is not entitled TO, the present writ
because Of laches. The decision of tie court,
after a declaration that there is no laches in
law owing to the numerous proceedings which
Goodwin has taken. proceeds'to whack the
Police Board IN this way:
In every tribunal before which the question ss to
the validity OF this RESIGNATION has been brought !,
by duress and fraaduisnily altered and was OF no
effect, eIceP, by The Board q Police commlsslcn:
; s:Gas %s'ss ss,s sHss f ~ a ES .', ans ' fssssSu,. NJ:
they bad. not acted upon hi. .o.Ssllea Te.ts!
nsspn because sass S Sf S.re hsSs f OF duty. the Upon Gs,
this latter charge the relator has never been tried;
and IL IL no defence. when IL Is established beyond
question that the resignation OF the relator was OH
tanned by duress and fraudulently altered after he
had been prevented from stating upon the resignation
the facts In reference thereto, for the respondents to
say that II he had not resigned they would have re-
moved him anyhow.
After saying that the declaration In the printed
form of resignation that the act Ia voluntary
and enforced suggests that coercion in some
cases Is anticipated and. moreover. Is n super
fiuous clause, since an officer coerced into sign
ing would necessarily sign the whole thing, the
court says:
but It is urged that II the reiator Is r%einstated he
gets three and q half years pay and has not been do
Ing any work. Il that any consideration which can
influence this court? II such a result follows Is IL
not because OF the persistent determination upon the
part OF these Commissioners not to do Justice to this
man, but to deprive him OF his onicc by means of q
false paper. and refusing to try him upon any charges
over which they had Jurisdiction and upon which
they so giibly claimed that he would have been re-
moved anyhow II Il was so certain that he could
have been removed upon those charges, and that they
instead OF insi, { ng upon this fraudulent resignation,
obtained by coercion and thrcatsp
IL mas not been thought necessary to discuss the EVIL.
dcnre establishing the facts in connection with this
resignation, because that has been done repeatedly al
ready; and we have only considered briefly the moral
considerations which have been urged In SUI port OF
the immoral act OF removing this man upon this false
resignatlon, and the question 81 law that the statute
has run against him and prohibits him from reviewing
the act OF the Commissioners.
The court gives the costs to Goodwin.