New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-15
RAIDS ON CITY TREASURY.
CONFESSIONS OF JUDGMENTS REACHING
ENORMOUS TOTALS.
CONTROLLER TO RECOMMEND PASSAGE OF
BILL TO STOP THEM-CLAIMs FOR
S7oo'u4 FILED so FAR THIS MONTH.

NoHIroAer Coier VIII go TO Albany to-day and ap-
pear before a committee OF the Assembly to urge
me passage OF bill to stop raids the city
treasury through confessions Of judgments against
the city without proper Investigation The hin nro
woes that in case Of the fling OF claims for
amounts Of $4,000 or less the CORPORATION Counsel
sAalI not confess Judgment without the knowledge
ana consent Of the Controller while on claims
larger than $1,000 the consent OF the Ngavor zbau
De required in addition that Of the Controller
4he controller has been moved TO action by the
eti1 enormous increase in the amounts Of claims
against the city under the ruling that the pre
Nallhg rate OF wages must be paid 10 all eng1-
heers, mechanics and laborers IN the employ Of
the CITY Several firms Of lawyers have been en-
s@seu III collecting and pushing claims Of city en-
pIoyes who received less than the prevailing rate
OF wages since the amendment 10 the Labor law
was passed about four years ago. The CORPORATION
Counsei mas confessed judgment against the citv
on claims amounting to S30s, 600 and the amount
OF claims up TO date is s.. 432 O56 The filing NJ
such claims was more frequent last wear and IN
December claims amount OF S414 765 xvera
hleo In January Of this year the amount Of claims
MEG was S264,4lI. Thus far in the present month
there have been filed claims amounting TO s7Oo114
The recent opinion OF Corporation Counsel
Wha!en as 10 the prevailing rate Of wages claims
has aided the rush Of claimants. Mr. CoIer said
yesterday that so long as the Corporation Counsel
was allowed 10 confess judgment against the CITY
on all such claims there seemed TO be no limit
TO the amount to which the city might be bIed
he exhibited documents to show that the lawyers
interested in collecting claims get Is per cent for
the collections One Of the documents was a
letter which had been written by James B Black
EFT to the widow Of former employe on the
Brooklyn Bridge. II contains the following para
graph:
All the engineers in the Bridge and Park depart
ments employed Thomas ". Burke OF No 2sO
Broadway .tStewart Building, 10 get their money;
he has charged p per cent, and they have all
paid II. II seems good price for the work done
as the cases go by default, and are contested
by the Corpora ton Counsel they all charge it
Among the CLAIMS which have been brought
the Controllers attention is one for a former in
spector IN the Department OF Public Works in the
former city Of New-York 10 the amount Of $4,000
for the difference between his salary since 1889
the prevailing rate Of wages The Controller said
he did not understand that there had been any pre-
vailing rate of wages for inspectors in the De
Partmen1 OF Public Works. Regarding the coIlec-
ton OF the claims the Controller said:
Very high percentages of the claims
rendered fees, and in some cases there are
signs OF peculiar conduct Men come here every
few days and when their claim Is 70 be
paid and the odd thing is that very often their
claims have Deen paiQ weeks before. Then some OF
these tell that they have been asked to
assign these claims which have been paid
without their knowledge. It looks though some
lawyers goc claim paid without telling their CHI
of II, and then sent agent TO buy the ell
ents claim for small part Of the payment