Year: 1871

isneu III the HERALD to-day, increases the
muddle and confusion in the legal division Of
our municipal corruption question. Mr..
OGorman, in the innocence of his heart,
does not know, first, whether an action for
damages would lie on the part Of the
city or county Of New York against


officers of the city or county who by


connivance or neglect may have been
instrumental in the unlawful abstraction
of money from the public treasury;


and second, whether he is justified in doing


of the Corporation by the prosecution of suits
against such officers, or whether he should
| trust to some one else 10 do it for him in
| other words, whether he should abandon the


suits brought by him against Tweed and Con-


molly and leave the matter in the hands of the
Attorney General of the State. He therefore
asks the opinion of Mr.. Curtis on these points,
and the latter replies at length, reviewing the
law in the case and arguing the question of the
power of the Attorney General to maintain the
suits he has already commenced against Tweed,
Ingersoll, Woodward and Garvey. The con-
clusion reached is that the city or county alone
has the right of action, and that the law officer
and people of the State have nothing to do
with it. 1t is regarded as point already
settled by the courts that culpable negligence
in the discharge of official duties or fraudu-
lent connivance with claimants renders pub
lie officer liable In damages to the extent of
the loss incurred by the people, Independent
of <ho Oh ot,tnv hopl hn 10 rnl % ~svvo


But where the money is wrongfully abstracted
from city or county funds the city
or county alone has cause of action, and
no other government or body polite has.
The money recovered would belong to
the people of the city or county of
the State, and hence the State cannot sue.


The statute duties of the Attorney General are


declared to be to prosecute and defend all ac-
tions in the event of which the people of this
State are interested, and no special power is
delegated to that officer to sue in cases where
terest. Mr.. Curtis considers it to be the plain
duty Of the Corporation Counsel to prosecute
the suits he has commenced against Tweed,
Connolly and others, and he does not think
such suits can impede the prosecution Of any
actions that may be brought on behalf of the
people of the State by the Attorney General.


This is, no doubt, all good law as far as it
goes; but the ground upon which Charles
OConor bases the actions brought in the
name Of the Attorney General of the
State is that the legal authorities of
the city will not prosecute at all or
will not faithfully press the suits for the
recovery Of the money fraudulently obtained
from the treasury Of the city Of New York


Supposing the allegation in the Attorney Gen


erals complaint to be true-that the actions
commenced by the Corporation Counsel
are brought in bad faith and with


the object of shielding the defendants


from the consequences of their acts
there would in that case be little question of
the power of the law officer of the State to sue
on behalf Of the people of the city of New
York, who are, as portion of the people Of
the State, entitled to his services and pro-
lection. But is there any proof that the
actions brought by O'Gorman by direction of
Mayor Hall are of the character described by
the Attorney General? The Committee of
Seventy and all the subcommittee and joint
committees, with every facility to reach the
evidence in the Comptroller's Office, have
found it long and tedious task
to collect the facts that have been
laid before the public, and certainly no suits
at law should have been commenced before
enough solid proof had been secured to render
an action likely to succeed. If Mayor Hall
had failed to instruct the Corporation Counsel
to bring the suits in question he would
have been properly chargeable with
The fact is that the abuse of the
Mayor and of the head of the Law Department


Of the city for commencing these actions, and


the demands Of the partisan newspapers that


they shall be abandoned, are only part of the
general dsorganization, anarchy and semi


communism under which we are at present


living. The proper officers of the government
are pushed aside, and bodies not recog-


nized by the law assume their powers.
The Mayor is superseded by COM
mittee; the Finance Department is ruled by
a deputy, who holds Office only on the uncer-
tain tenure of Comptroller, prohibited by
the Courts from signing bonds and warrants
the Corporation Counsel is not suffered to dis
charge his sworn duty the State assumes the
guardianship Of the people of the city. This


is the condition to which the great
metropolis of the Union is reduced at
the present time, and if Judge Pierrepont


and Ex-Governor Salomans, of Wisconsin,


could have prevailed upon Governor Hoffman


to bestow martial law upon us, we should


have had, in addition, government of bayo-


nets and drumhead court martias.


These evils have dnnhflasa haan bron nht