Case Name: Joseph Fahys & Co., Plaintiff, v. William T. Vaughn, as Collector of Taxes for the Village of Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York, Defendant
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1910-08
Citations: 68 Misc. 541
Docket Number: 
Parties: Joseph Fahys & Co., Plaintiff, v. William T. Vaughn, as Collector of Taxes for the Village of Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York, Defendant.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Miscellaneous Reports
Volume: 68
Pages: 541–544

Head Matter:
Joseph Fahys & Co., Plaintiff, v. William T. Vaughn, as Collector of Taxes for the Village of Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York, Defendant.
(Supreme Court, Suffolk Special Term,
August, 1910.)
Taxes: Assessment — Formal requisites of assessment — In general — Description of lands: Equalization, correction and review of assessments — Correction and review — In general — Sufficiency of advertisement for grievances; Sufficiency of advertisement of completion of roll; Correction and review — Certiorari — Time of taking proceeding — Failure to publish notice of completion of roll: Relief from illegal taxation — Injunction — Waiver of defects.
When the description of property in an assessment roll is sufficient for its identification and no objection to the sufficiency of the description is made by the owner when he appears on grievance day and objects to the assessment on other grounds, the collection of a tax afterward levied thereon will not be enjoined for the insufficiency of the description.
Where property is not assessed by the acre, the omission to state the number of acres in the assessment roll will not invalidate the assessment.
Where notice for the hearing of grievances was duly published in two newspapers, failure to begin publication in a third newspaper until two days after the time required by statute does not invalidate the assessment in the absence of proof that any taxpayer failed to obtain notice.
Failure to publish notice of the completion of the assessment roll does not invalidate a tax levied thereon, its only effect being to leave unlimited the time within which aggrieved parties might sue out certiorari to review the act of the assessors.
Motion to make permanent an injunction restraining the defendant from collecting and receiving taxes under the tax levy of 1910.
Joseph M. Belford, for motion,
John R. Vunk, opposed.

Opinion:
Putnam, J.
Plaintiff, a domestic corporation, as a local taxpayer, brings this suit in equity to enjoin the collection of the tax assessment made upon the 12th day of July, 1910. The complaint avers: (a) defects in the assessment roll, in that the property assessed is not sufficiently described, in that the land is not properly described so that it can be located, and the quantity of land not properly stated; (b) illegal acts of the assessors, in that they did not give required notice of the meeting to complete the assessment roll and of the time for hearing complaints in relation thereto, and did not give the required notice of the completion and filing of the assessment roll with the village clerk; and, lastly, that the collector did not give legal notice o-f the time and place where he would sit to receive the taxes.
It does not appear from "the complaint, or 'affidavits, that the description of the property is insufficient to identify it. Furthermore, it is shown that, at a meeting held on June seventh to hear complaints in relation to the assessments, plaintiff, by its counsel, appeared before the board of assessors and made complaint in relation to the assessment of its properties. Hot only was the plaintiff able to identify the properties assessed, but no complaint appears to have been then made as to the mode of assessment, or that the properties were not sufficiently described, or that the quantity of land was not stated. In Cone v. Lauer, 115 N. Y. Supp. 644, Mr. Justice Jaycox said: " The description from the assessment roll was read to the plaintiff and he identified it as his property. A description sufficient to enable him to do this answers the very purpose for which, under the statute, it is inserted."
Inasmuch as the manufacturing property of plaintiff is not assessed by the acre, the omission of the number of acres is not important, since the description in the assessment roll appears to be sufficient for practical purposes. Allter v. Village of St. Johnsville, 114 N. Y. Supp. 355; People ex rel. West Shore R. Co. v. Adams, 10 id. 295.
Sag Harbor has three newspapers. It appears that the assessors' notice of hearing was published in two papers for the full period required and was publicly posted in the village, but the notice in the third paper began two days later than the date set by law. This did not invalidate the notice, in the absence of an allegation that any taxpayer failed to obtain notice of the time and place of the hearing. Trumbull v. Palmer, 42 Misc. Rep. 628, Maddox, J. ; Austen v. Westchester Telephone Co., 8 id. 11.
Hotice of the completion of the assessment roll was published at least once in the official paper of said village and was publicly posted. The tax was not invalidated by the failure to publish notice of the completion of the .assessment roll in other papers. Even in ease of an entire failure to publish such notice, the tax would not thereby be rendered void, but it is held that such omission would leave unlimited the time within which aggrieved parties might sue out certiorari to review the act of the assessors. Clark v. Smith, 31 Misc. Rep. 490.
It does not appear that the collector's notice was insufficient. A copy of it was shown to have been published in two papers and also posted, and no specific defect therein has been pointed out.
Even if some of the informalities urged were of greater weight, yet it is well settled in ¡New York that equity will hot interfere to restrain the collection of the tax where the grievance assigned does not relate to some question of fraud or illegal discrimination. Mercantile National Bank v. Mayor, 172 N. Y. 35; Trumbull v. Palmer, 93 N. Y. Supp. 349.
Plaintiff, however, brings this suit under a taxpayer's act, chapter 531 of the Laws of 1881 (now section 51 of the General Municipal Law). An examination of this statute and the .authorities under it fails to show that the court has given injunctive relief against mere illegalities of taxation, without fraud, corruption or waste amounting to bad faith. Public policy forbids that the collection of - public' revenue shall be restrained on the grounds of illegality, or even unconstitutionality, unless in case of fraud or under some recognized head of equity. United Lines Telegraph Co. v. Grant, 137 N. Y. 7; Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Grant, 11 N. Y. Supp. 323; D. & H. Canal Co. v. Atkins, 121 N. Y. 246. Where the courts have interfered to restrain a tax levy, it was not for errors of the kind here alleged, but where in the levy itself are included improper claims which constitute fraudulent, unjust or excessive demands 'against such municipal corporation. Squire v. Preston, 82 Hun, 88.
The temporary injunction of July twenty-ninth is, therefore, vacated, with costs.
Temporary injunction vacated, with costs.