Case Name: City of Poughkeepsie v. Quintard
Court: New York Supreme Court, General Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1892-07-22
Citations: 19 N.Y.S. 944
Docket Number: 
Parties: City of Poughkeepsie v. Quintard.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 19
Pages: 944–945

Head Matter:
City of Poughkeepsie v. Quintard.
(Supreme Court, General Term, Second Department.
July 22, 1892.)
City Charter—Statutory Construction—City Bonds.
Laws 1889, c. 526, authorizes any city to sell new bonds, and retire the old ones as-the latter mature. Poughkeepsie city charter (Laws 1883, c. 523) prohibits the council from borrowing any money for the city except as therein provided, and provides that the “ council shall not create any pecuniary obligations * * * which shall not be payable in the current year, and which cannot be discharged from the income of the same year. ” Held, that the Poughkeepsie council may sell new bonds: to retire old ones, such exchange not creating any new obligation. Gulden, J.,. dissenting.
Case submitted on agreed statement.
Controversy between the city of Poughkeepsie and William J. Quintard, submitted on an agreed ease without action. Judgment for plaintiff.
Argued before Barnard, P. J., and Dykman and Cullen, JJ.
C. B. Herrick, for plaintiff. Clark c6 Sedgwick, for defendant.

Opinion:
Barnard, P. J.
The right to exchange a new bond of the city for an old' one maturing is given plainly by chapter 526, Laws 1889, and the laws amended thereby. The act of 1889 went further than the preceding acts. In that legislature, permission was given to sell new bonds under very-guarded conditions, and to pay the old ones with the proceeds of the new. Neither the direct exchange nor the issue of the new bonds constitutes a creation of a liability under the city charter. Neither creates a new debt or obligation. As to the exchange, it is very plain that a substitution of one bond for another created no new liability. The application of money derived from a new bond to the payment of the old is the same thing, in the spirit of the act permitting cities to meet maturing loans by an exchange or sale of new bonds. Judgment for plaintiff upon submitted case, with costs.
Dykman, J., concurs.