Citations
- 99 N.Y. 225
Full opinion text
Ruger, Ch. J.
This is a proceeding, by mahidamus, to compel the comptroller of the city of Troy to countersign two certain bills containing items of account accruing between the dates of June 13, 1881, and June o, 1883, for advertising and publishing official proceedings and notices for the municipal government of Troy, by the Troy Observer. lío question is made but that the services in question were actually rendered by the relator, nor but that the city of Troy had the benefit of them, in the performance of a duty imposed upon it by law. It is, however, urged, as a defense, that the Troy Observer was ineligible for the legal performance of such work after February, 1880, by reason of not possessing the. qualification of membership in the Associated Press, required by chapter 30 of the Laws of that year, and, as a consequence thereof, that the performance of any printing required to he done by an official newspaper, after that period, could not lawfully be performed by the Troy Observer. Under the authority of the city charter, as amended by section 3 of chapter 813 of the Laws of 1873, reading as follows: “The common council shall designate not to exceed four newspapers, having the largest circulation in the city, in which the city advertising shall be done only on the order of the common council,” on March 11, 1879, the Troy Observer was, among others, legally designated as one of such newspapers. Ho period was prescribed by the law, or by the act of appointment, as appears herein, for the termination of the official character of the papers designated, and the inference must be that it was intended to continue until legally terminated, either by some provision of law, the act of the appointing power naming a successor thereto, or by a repeal of the authority under which the designated paper was acting. It is not claimed that any other paper has at any time been legally designated to succeed ■the Troy Observer, as an official newspaper, or that the common council have, by any legal act, attempted to terminate its •official existence. The claim is, that by virtue of section 4 of chapter 30, Laws of 1880, amending section 3 of title 2, .chapter 598 of Laws of 1870, and providing that “the common council shall, on the 'second Tuesday of March, 1880, and