Case Name: PEOPLE ex rel. TOWN OF PLATTSBURG v. WILLIAMS
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1899-11
Citations: 61 N.Y.S. 983
Docket Number: 
Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. TOWN OF PLATTSBURG v. WILLIAMS.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 61
Pages: 983–983

Head Matter:
(29 Misc. Rep. 463.)
PEOPLE ex rel. TOWN OF PLATTSBURG v. WILLIAMS.
(Supreme Court, Special Term, Clinton County.
November, 1899.)
Intoxicating Liquors—License Fees—Distribution.
Laws 1896, c. 112, § 13 (Liquor Tax Law), provides that one-third o£ all revenues arising from liquor taxes shall- be paid to the state treasurer as a part of the general tax revenue of the state. Laws 1898, c. 125, provides that all excise money arising from liquor licenses granted in the town of Plattsburg shall be deposited with the treasurer of the poor fund, to be used and expended under the direction of the board of alms of said .town. Held, that the operation of the act of 1898 must be confined to such funds as the act of 1896 did not appropriate to the state, hence the town of Plattsburg was entitled to only two-thirds of the revenue derived from liquor licenses issued in that town.
Application by the people, on relation oí the town of Plattsburg, for mandamus against Andrew Williams, as county treasurer of Clinton county, to compel the payment to relator of funds received from liquor tax certificates. Denied.
David H. Agnew, for relator.
P. W. Cullinan, for respondent.

Opinion:
KELLOGG, J.
Application is made by the relator for a writ of mandamus to compel the treasurer of Clinton county to pay over to the town of Plattsburg the liquor tax money received from licenses issued in the town of Plattsburg since May 1, 1899. This application is based upon the wording of an act passed in 1898 (chapter 125) to amend an act of 1894 (chapter 471) relating to the same subject. In 1894 all the excise money paid for licenses in the town of Plattsburg went to the treasurer of the board of alms as a poor fund. The amendment follows in this respect the wording of the old law, disregarding the provisions of the liquor tax law (chapter 112, Laws 1896), by which one-third of such money was to be paid by the county treasurer to the state. I cannot think that the legislature intended this amendment of 1898 to divert from the state treasury that one-third, while all other towns in the state must contribute one-third for state purposes. This would be such a discrimination in favor of the town of Plattsburg as to excite grave question as to its cause. There appears to have been some blundering in the use of words in the amendatory act. The fair, and, I think, the proper, construction must confine the meaning of this amendment to such money as the state does not, by the liquor tax law, appropriate to itself for state purposes. The application is therefore denied, but without costs.
Application denied, without costs.