Citations
- 161 A.D. 138
Full opinion text
Clarke, J.:
Relator is a domestic corporation engaged in the business of constructing and maintaining advertising signs and billboards. On or about October 10, 1912, it filed in the office of the superintendent of buildings statement of specifications and plans for a proposed sign to be constructed of wood, the face thereof to be covered with galvanized iron, to be erected upon the vacant lot located on the southerly side of Two Hundred and Fifteenth street, between Broadway and Tenth avenue, in the borough of Manhattan, with the written consent of the owner of the property upon which said sign was to be erected. Said sign was to be erected thirty feet back from the building line, was to be twenty-two feet in height and fifty feet in length. The superintendent disapproved in writing the said application, and refused to grant permission for the construction' of said sign; whereupon the petitioner brought this proceeding to obtain a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel him to approve the application and grant the permit.
The Building Code was adopted by the municipal assembly of the city of New York pursuant to section 647 of the Greater New York charter (Laws of 1897, chap. 378), and approved by the mayor of said city on October 24, 1899. It was ratified by the Legislature by section 407 of the revised charter (Laws of 1901, chap. 466), and by chapters 602 and 628 of the Laws of 1904, amending said section 407.
“ In view of this ratification by the Legislature of the power to enact the Building Code, we fail to see why the Building Code should not be given the same force within the corporate limits as the statute passed by the Legislature itself.” (City of New York v. Trustees, 85 App. Div. 355; affd. on the opinion below, 180 N. Y. 527; Post v. Kerwin, 133 App. Div. 404; City of New York v. Foster, 148 id. 258; affd., 205 N. Y. 593; Racine v. Morris, 136 App. Div. 467; affd., 201 N. Y. 240.)
The Building Code provides in section 4 thereof for the filing of plans and statements before the erection, construction or alteration of any building or structure or part of any building or structure, and such proposed work shall not be commenced or proceeded with until said statements and plans shall have been so filed and approved. Section 143 thereof provides as follows: