The People v. The Commissioners of Emigration. counties of the state, in some counties were required, and in the others authorized, to purchase one or more tracts of land, not exceeding 200 acres, and thereon to build and erect, for the accommodation, employment and use of the county, one or more suitable buildings, to be denominated the poor-house of such county, and, to defray the expense of such purchase and buildings, to raise by tax the requisite moneys. And it was made the duty of such supervisors, in the said act, to choose annually, by plurality of votes, not less than five persons, who should be denominated superintendents of the poor of such county, who should take upon themselves and have the exclusive charge, management, direction and superintendence of said poor-house, and of every thing relating to the same. The said superintendents were also authorized in said act to make rules for the regulation and government of said poor-house, to appoint a keeper thereof, and to contract for the support of the persons who should be placed in the poor-houses of the respective counties. In section 3 of said act, provision is made for peopling said poor-houses, by authorizing the overseers of the respective towns, in respect to any person in any city or town, who shall apply for relief, to make application to a justice of the peace of the county, which justice and the said overseer were required to inquire into the circumstances of such poor person, and if it appears to them that the said person is in indigent circumstances, so as to require relief, to issue a warrant to any constable, requiring him to remove such poor person to the poor-house of such county. Under this act, the superintendents of the poor had no charge, duty or authority in respect to the poor of their respective counties, except at the poor-house, and after they were at that place, duly committed or entrusted to their keeping. On the revision in 1827 the provisions of this act of 1824 were substantially re-enacted. The revisers, in preparing title 1 of chapter 2 of 1st part of revised statutes, combined the provisions of various laws providing for the support of the poor under three ways then in force in the state, in different counties: The People v. The Commissioners of Emigration. one where the poor were all a county charge; one where there were county poor houses where county and town poor were supported; and the other where the towns supported their own poor. They endeavored to consolidate these laws into one system. They proposed a system making all the poor a county charge, but it was not adopted by the legislature. The present system requires the appointment of county superintendents in all counties, and the erection of county poorhouses, (except New York.) Section 16 declares that the superintendents shall be a corporation, and shall possess the usual powers of corporations for public purposes, and shall have a general superintendence and care of the county poor who shall be in their respective counties, and shall have the powers specified in eleven subdivisions following. These subdivisions embrace the same powers conferred upon the county superintendent by the act of 1824, with some additions and amplifications. The duties prescribed in these subdivisions all relate to the support of the poor at the county poor house, and for the determination and settlement of the claims of the towns in respect to the poor, giving the superintendents a general supervisory jurisdiction over all questions relating to the settlement of the poor and of the respective liabilities of the towns and county. The powers conferred upon the superintendents in this section, as a corporation, are such as are incidental to all public officers where several persons must act together. They merely constitute them a corporation, with the usual powers to assemble, to have succession notwithstanding a change of officers, to sue and be sued, and use the corporate name, and act as a public body, possessing in this instance a general supervision and care over the county poor. The special enumeration of the powers conferred upon the superintendents, constitute the charter of the corporation, and embrace all their powers, except such as are incidental to all corporations or public bodies. All corporations or public officers, or other persons exercising a special authority, must keep within the limits prescribed for them by law, (15 N. Y. Rep. The People v. The Commissioners of Emigration. 1 Smith, 1,) and must show their power of attorney in the statute book. All the power conferred upon the county superintendents, to support and maintain the county poor, must be exercised according to these provisions, at the county poorhouse, or at such other place as may be provided for that purpose by the direction of the board of supervisors. In none of the subdivisions of said section, and in none of the enumerations of the powers of the superintendents, or in any distinct section, is any power given to the superintendents, or any of them, to expend money for the temporary relief of the poor, or to spend any money for their support elsewhere than at the poor-house, or place provided for their support as a substitute therefor, under the direction of the supervisors. The poor-houses are to be supplied with inmates by persons sent to them by order of the overseers of the poor, precisely as under the third section of the act of 1824, except that the overseer of the poor need not associate with him a justice of the peace in making such order, as prescribed in said last mentioned act, but so far as relates to temporary relief, the intervention and order of a justice of the peace is still required, (sec. 42,) and that this power of giving temporary relief is only given to the overseers of the poor, is obvious from the provision in the same section, that not more than $10 can be expended or paid for the relief of any one poor person or family, without the sanction in writing of one of the superintendents of the poor, to be presented to the county treasurer, with the order of the justice; thus making the superintendents of the poor also a check upon the overseer, together with the justices of the peace. No other provision for temporary relief is made, except that contained in this section, 42. No officer is authorized to make such expenditure but the overseers of the poor. This section has since been amended by chapter 236 of laws of 1854, so as to allow the overseer to expend a sum not to exceed $10, in his discretion, for the temporary relief of one poor person, without the order of the justice. The system for the support of the poor, pre The People v. The Commissioners of Emigration. scribed in this title of the revised statutes, gives to the superintendents supervisory powers like those of directors of a corporation aggregate over the poor-house and poor affairs of the county, and gives to overseers of the poor power to send paupers to the poor-house and give them temporary relief, and constitutes them the only officers who are to come in the first instance in personal contact with the individual poor; the only officers to inquire into their circumstances and to make primary provision for their support. The moneys of the public for the support of the poor are all placed in the keeping of the county treasurer, who may pay, and is only authorized to pay, the superintendent the sums required to support the poor-house, and to the overseer the sums requisite for temporary relief. The poor system as devised by the legislature is one of checks and guards, carefully provided to protect the public interests in respect to the disbursement of the public money designed for the support of the poor. Around the superintendents of the poor as disbursing officers to the individual poor, there are no checks or guards, and for the obvious reason that they are entrusted with no money for such purpose. Their resolution to appropriate money for some specific object, their draft upon the treasurer for such money, and their voucher therefor from the person to whom the same is paid, may explain all their moneyed transactions for the public. They have clearly no authority to draw, use or expend the public money otherwise than is prescribed or allowed to them expressly by law for the support of the poor at the poor-house. The moneys expended by the relators, for the temporary relief of the persons named in the schedule annexed to the writ in this cause, having thus been expended without any authority of law, the defendants are entitled to judgment upon the demurrer, and the writ of peremptory mandamus must be denied, and the order of the special term should be reversed. [CAYUGA GENERAL TERM, June 7, 1858. Johnson, Welles and Smith, Justices.] THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ex rel. Lorenzo Burrows, comptroller &c., vs. THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF ORANGE COUNTY. The act of April 12, 1855, imposing a state tax of a mill and a quarter on each dollar of the valuation of real aad personal property taxable in this state, (Laws of 1855, p. 611,) was valid ande onstitutional. S. B. STRONG, J., dissented. The direction, in that act, that the money raised shall "be paid into the treasury of the state, to the credit of the general fund," is a sufficient statement of the object to which the tax is to be applied, within art. 7, sec. 13 of the constitution. A PPEAL from an order made at a special term, ordering a peremptory mandamus to issue. Upon an affidavit made by the relator, stating that he was the comptroller of the state of New York; that the board of supervisors of Orange county, at their last annual meeting, refused to levy or cause to be collected any tax upon the taxable property of the county of Orange, under or by virtue of chapter 335 of the laws of 1855, entitled "An act to provide the means to support the government," and had ever since refused to levy the same; that the amount of said state tax to be levied and collected under said law in the county of Orange, according to the valuation of the real and personal estate in said county, was the sum of $31,665.60; that the treasurer of said county had not paid said sum, or any part thereof, into the treasury of this state; and that said sum was absolutely required to enable the deponent to pay the demands upon the treasury of this state, required to be paid by law, an order was made at a special term, on the last Tuesday of July, 1856, directing that an alternative mandamus issue to the board of supervisors, commanding the said board forthwith to re-assemble, and to cause to be raised and collected in the manner prescribed by law for the collection of taxes, the said sum of $31,665.60, out of the taxable property of the county of Orange, as the same appeared upon the last assessment rolls of the several towns in said county; and also cause the same to be paid into the treasury |