Case Name: In the Matter of the Application of the Common Council of the City of Lackawanna, Erie County, New York, Respondent, for an Order Legalizing Proceedings Prior to the Issue and Sale of $130,000 City of Lackawanna, N. Y., Road Improvement Bonds, etc. James J. Redmond, Appellant
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1913-07-08
Citations: 158 A.D. 263
Docket Number: 
Parties: In the Matter of the Application of the Common Council of the City of Lackawanna, Erie County, New York, Respondent, for an Order Legalizing Proceedings Prior to the Issue and Sale of $130,000 City of Lackawanna, N. Y., Road Improvement Bonds, etc. James J. Redmond, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 158
Pages: 263–273

Head Matter:
In the Matter of the Application of the Common Council of the City of Lackawanna, Erie County, New York, Respondent, for an Order Legalizing Proceedings Prior to the Issue and Sale of $130,000 City of Lackawanna, N. Y., Road Improvement Bonds, etc. James J. Redmond, Appellant.
Fourth Department,
July 8, 1913.
Constitutional law — General Municipal Law, article SA, providing for the legalizing of municipal bonds —jurisdictional defect in proceedings for issuance of bonds by city of Lackawanna.
Article SA of the General Municipal Law, providing for a proceeding in the Supreme Court for the legalizing of municipal bonds or proceedings for them issuance, is constitutional and is not an attempted delega tion of legislative functions to the judiciary in violation of article 3, section 1, and article 6, section 10, of the State Constitution.
Where under the provisions of section 86 of the charter of the city of Lackawanna (Laws of 1909, chap. 574, as amd.) the amount of a proposed bond issue was estimated by the common council, and advertised, the subsequent raising of such amount before the submission of the proposition to the taxpayers was not a mere irregularity or technicality, but a jurisdictional defect, and the bond issue should not be legalized.
Merreizd, J., dissented in part, with memorandum; Lambert, J., dissented in part, with opinion.
Appeal by J ames J. Redmond, taxpayer, from an order of the Supreme Court, made at the Erie Special Term and entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Erie on the 9th day of April, 1913.
Lewis L. Delafield and Philip K. Walcott, for the appellant.
Myron S. Short, for the respondent.

Opinion:
Kruse, P. J.:
I concur in the construction Mr. Justice Lambert puts upon the statute under which this proceeding is brought and all he says upon that subject. It seems to me, however, that the conclusion which he reaches, that the infirmity in the proceedings was a mere irregularity or technicality, is not well founded. The charter of the city of Lackawanna (Laws of 1909, chap. 574:, § 86, as amd. by Laws of 1912, chap. 355) requires the common council to publish the resolutions and estimates together with the notice of the time and place of the special election, and the specific question to be decided at the special election, according to the statute, is whether the amount of such expenditure shall be raised by tax. The ballot is required to state the amount of the expenditure. I think the statute requires that this amount shall be the amount as estimated by the common council and published in the notice. I think the application should have been denied.
All concurred, Merrell, J., in result only in a separate memorandum, except Lambert, J.; who dissented in an opinion.