§§ 553, 554. Receiver of taxes in certain towns. L. 1916, ch. 553. ARTICLE XXIVA. (Article added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) RECEIVER OF TAXES IN CERTAIN TOWNS. Section 513. Office of receiver of taxes and assessments created; term of office; 516. 517. Election; term of office; salary; bond; oath of office. Warrant for collection of taxes. 518. Certain offices abolished. § 513. Office of receiver of taxes and assessments created; term of office; compensation.-There shall be in and for each town which contains a village adjoining a city of the first class situated within a county having a population of four hundred thousand or more, according to the last state enumeration, except counties adjoining a city of over one million inhabitants, a receiver of taxes and assessments. The term of office of such receiver shall be four years. Such office shall be filled by the electors of the town, in the same manner as other elective town offices, at the times hereinafter provided. The salary for such office shall be fixed by the town board. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) § 514. Powers and duties of receiver.-The receiver of taxes and assessments shall be a resident of such town and shall hold no other public office except receiver of taxes and assessments of a village in such town and shall have and possess, and shall exercise in the manner and within the time prescribed by law all the rights, powers, authority and jurisdiction possessed and exercised by the collector of taxes and the collector of school taxes in said town, and shall be subject to all of the duties of such officers. It shall be the duty of such receiver to receive and collect all state, county, town and school taxes and assessments that may be levied in such town, including excise moneys, water rates, license moneys, and all other moneys provided by law to be paid to the supervisor or collector or school collector, or to any other town officer. All fees collected by him upon any tax or assessment heretofore paid to the supervisor, collector, or school district collector shall belong to the town and shall be paid into the general town fund. Such receiver shall enter daily in a suitable book or books the sum of money received daily, the names of the persons from whom received, and the particular tax or assessment, subject or department for which such sums were paid, and the interest, penalty or fee, if any, paid thereon, and such book or books shall be public records and shall be open during office hours to public inspection to any taxpayer in such town. Within twentyfour hours after receiving the same, he shall deposit all sums of money received and collected by him in such bank or banks as may be designated from time to time by the town board. All moneys deposited by him so L. 1916, ch. 553. Receiver of taxes in certain towns. §§ 515-517. belonging to the town shall be paid out and disbursed by him on his check as such receiver upon proper order of the town board. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) § 515. Office hours.-Such receiver shall keep his office in such town, and his office shall be open each and every day, Sundays and all public holidays excepted, from nine o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the afternoon. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) § 516. Election; term of office; salary; bond; oath of office. The receiver of taxes and assessments shall be elected for a full term at the next biennial election after this article takes effect and at the biennial election in every fourth year thereafter; and also at any intervening biennial election for an unexpired term to fill a vacancy occurring more than thirty days before such election. The full term of office of such receiver shall begin, or a receiver elected to fill a vacancy shall take office, on the first day of January succeeding his election, and such term shall end on the thirty-first day of December following the election at which his successor is required to be chosen. The salary of such receiver shall be raised and collected by tax as other town charges are raised and collected. In the event of a vacancy in such office by death, resignation or other cause, the town board shall fill the same, at a regular or special meeting called for that purpose, by an appointment expiring on the thirty-first day of December next succeeding the first biennial town meeting at which the office may be filled by election as hereinbefore provided; but nothing contained in this article or any other statute shall authorize an appointment by the town board to fill a vacancy in such office before the first day of January following the biennial town meeting first occurring after this article takes effect. Such board may at any regular or special meeting fix the amount of the bond to be given by such receiver, and such bond shall be subject to approval as to form and sufficiency of surety by said board. Such bond shall be conditioned on the faithful discharge of the duties of such receiver of taxes and assessments and shall be filed in the office of the town clerk and, in case of default shall inure to the benefit of the town, county and state. Such receiver after having been elected or appointed and before entering upon the discharge of the duties of his office shall take and subscribe and file in the office of the town clerk the constitutional oath of office. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) § 517. Warrant for collection of taxes.-The board of supervisors of the county shall issue its warrant to such receiver of taxes and assessments for the collection of taxes in such town in the same manner as warrants are issued to collectors, and all other warrants or authorizations for the collection of taxes, assessments, or other moneys which, except for the provisions of this article, would be issued to some other officer, shall be issued to such receiver of taxes and assessments. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) § 518. Receiver of taxes in certain towns. L. 1916, ch. 553. § 518. Certain offices abolished.-The office of collector and of school district collector in such towns are abolished from and after the beginning of the term of office of the first receiver of taxes under this article, and no such collector shall be chosen at any time to succeed the collector in office when the term of such receiver begins. Upon the taking of office by the first receiver of taxes and assessments as provided herein, the collector of the town and each school district collector shall surrender up and deliver to such receiver all assessment rolls, books, papers, writings and all other documents in his possession as such officer. All provisions of law applicable to town collectors or school district collectors and not inconsistent with the provisions of this article are hereby made applicable to such receiver and such receiver shall continue to collect all fees and penalties which such collectors, or either of them, would collect were it not for the provisions of this article. (Added by L. 1916, ch. 553, in effect Jan. 1, 1917.) Gas and electric companies. TRANSPORTATION CORPORATION LAW. (L. 1909, ch. 219.) §§ 25, 61, 62. § 25. Additional persons and corporations subject to the public service commissions law. Common carrier.-One who operates in a city a motor vehicle connected with a bus line, a stage route and a motor vehicle line or route, all of which are feeders, connections, inducements, advertisers, solicitors, aids to and a part of his system of carrying passengers for hire from said city to points beyond the corporate limits, is a common carrier within said city within the meaning of chapter 667 of the Laws of 1915. Public Service Commission v. Hurtgan (1915), 91 Misc. 432, 154 N. Y. Supp. 897. A municipal license permitting the licensee to operate a jitney bus line within the municipaliy does not create a vested right in the licensee so as to exempt him from the operation of chapter 667 of the Laws of 1915, amending section 25 of the Transportation Corporations Law, subsequently enacted, which required persons operating such bus lines in cities to obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Public Service Commission and subjects such line to reasonable regulations imposed by the Commission. In view of the fact that a jitney bus line uses the highways of a municipality and comes in competition with other vehicles carrying passengers for hire, the Legislature, in the exercise of its police powers, may subject such carriers to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission. Although said statute places only those bus lines charging a fare of fifteen cents or less under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission, there is no illegal discrimination against such carriers in violation of their constitutional rights. Public Service Commission v. Booth (1915), 170 App. Div. 590, 156 N. Y. Supp. 140. Injunction. One who operates a motor vehicle line within a city without the consent of the municipal authorities and without procuring a certificate from the public service commission as to the necessity and public convenience of such business violates the statute, and an injunction will be granted restraining him from operating his motor vehicles and carrying passengers for hire within said city. Public Service Commission v. Hurtgan (1915), 91 Misc. 432, 154 N. Y. Supp. 897. § 61. Powers. Corporation dealing in natural gas; consent of municipal authorities.—Corporations, dealing in natural gas, organized under Transportation Corporations Law, are required to seek the consent of the municipal authorities, i.e., the town board; but, when organized under the Business Corporations Law, are required to seek the consent of the town superintendent. Farnsworth v. Boro Oil & Gas Co. (1915), 216 N. Y. 40, 43, affg. 155 App. Div. 79, 139 N. Y. Supp. 736. A gas company, organized under the Business Corporations Law to deal in natural gas, which has obtained consent of the town board, on certain conditions, to lay pipes in the streets is estopped from denying the validity of a contract on ground of lack of power in town board to grant permission. Farnsworth v. Boro Oil and Gas Co. (1915), 216 N. Y. 40, affg. 155 App. Div. 79, 139 N. Y. Supp. 736. The town board and not the commissioner or superintendent of highways constitutes the "municipal authorities," within the meaning of subdivision 2 of this section. Niagara & Erie Power Co. v. Public Service Commission (1916), 171 App. Div. 361, 156 N. Y. Supp. 879. § 62. Gas and electric light must be supplied on application. Duty of gas company to install and exchange meters.-Where a gas company at §§ 63, 103. Transmission of dispatches. the request of the owner of a building has installed a particular type of gas meter, it has performed its statutory duty under this section, and since there is no particular kind of meter prescribed by statute, the company at the request of a tenant is not required by law to change a prepayment meter theretofore installed by it for a black meter, without the payment of the reasonable costs of the change. Public Service Commission v. Northern Union Gas Co. (1915), 168 App. Div. 731, 154 N. Y. Supp. 649. Refusal of electric company to furnish current; certificate as to sufficiency of customer's electric equipment; certificate of board of fire underwriters.-Although this section imposes a penalty upon electric lighting companies which refuse to furnish electricity to consumers as required by the statute, such duty is not unqualified, and an electric power company may make reasonable rules and regulations as to the sufficiency and safety of the equipment of the person applying for electric power. Thus, such company is justified in requiring an applicant for electric power in the city of New York to show the sufficiency and safety of the electric equipment in his building by obtaining a certificate to that effect from the board of fire underwriters, and may lawfully refuse to supply or continue electric current until such certificate is obtained without becoming subject to the statutory penalty. It is not unreasonable for an electric company to insist upon the production of a certificate of the board of fire underwriters, although the applicant for electricity is required to pay to the board a small fee for the certificate, for, it seems, that the electric company itself could charge him with the expense of examining his equipment by its own experts and hence may insist that the examination be made by the fire underwriters, although a fee is charged. Tisiner v. New York Edison Co. (1915), 170 App. Div. 647, 156 N. Y. Supp. 28. Extensions of gas mains for more than one hundred feet cannot be ordered under this section. Pub. Serv. Com. Decision (1915), 4 State Dep. Rep. 26. § 63. Deposit of money may be required. Interest on all deposits at the legal rate is required to be paid by gas corporations. Provision should be made for the payment or crediting of interest at reasonable intervals, and each company should seek to locate all depositors whose accounts have been closed, in order that they may refund to them the balance of their deposits. Pub. Serv. Com. Decision (1915), 4 State Dep. Rep. 1. § 103. Transmission of dispatches. Penalty for failure to transmit messages to other companies; unjustified refusal to furnish telephone service to subscriber.-The penalty prescribed in this section upon telephone companies for refusing to transmit messages received from and for other telephone companies and from and for individuals who have paid the usual charges has no reference to the unjustified act of a telephone company in suspending telephone service to a subscriber upon the ground that he had failed to pay the monthly telephone charges, although he had proved that all moneys due had in fact been paid. The relation of a subscriber. to the telephone company is contractual and his remedy for the acts aforesaid is an action for breach of contract. Rose v. New York Telephone Co. (1915), 167 App. Div. 691, 152 N. Y. Supp. 827. VETERINARY MEDICINE. Licenses; Public Health L., § 219.. |