IN ASSEMBLY, January 13, 1831. REPORT Of the committee on claims, on the petition of the Highland Turnpike Company. Mr. J. C. Spencer, from the committee on claims, to which was referred the petition of the president, directors and company of the Highland turnpike company, REPORTED In 1825, the supervisors of Westchester levied a tax on the capital of the petitioners, as follows: On the bed of the turnpike road, which was estimated at 16,000 dollars, and on the amount of stock subscribed, estimated at 70,828 dollars; which tax amounted in the whole to $202.83, of which $43.41 was for the State tax. In 1826, a further tax of $75 was levied, of which no part was for the State. The petition alleges that no effort was made to prevent the assessment, as it did not occur to the president, who managed the concerns of the company, that the supervisors would assess the corporation. The petitioners ask for an act directing the repayment of these taxes. Your committee believe that the proceedings of the supervisors were not warranted by law; but they do not perceive how aclaim on the State is thereby furnished. The laws provide ample remedies for the illegal acts of officers of every description, and it would be a novelty for the State to compensate for injuries produced by such acts. If the proceedings were lawful, then most assuredly the State can not interfere. If the assessment was erroneous in amount, means were provided by law to reduce it; and it can not seriously be asked of the State to remunerate any individual for a loss sustained by his own neglect to pursue the appropriate remedies. [A. No. 23.] 1 The committee recommend to the House the adoption of the fol lowing resolution : Resolved, That the prayer of the petition of the Highland turnpike company be denied, and that the said company have leave to withdraw the same. IN ASSEMBLY, January 13, 1831. REPORT Of the committee on claims, on the petition of Mr. J. C. Spencer, from the committee on claims, to which was referred the petition of William C. Young, REPORTED : The petitioner was employed as an engineer by the commissioners appointed in the act passed April 15th, 1828, respecting a rail-road from Boston to the Hudson river. He made very valuable maps and profiles of the route from Albany to the Massachusetts line, and attended with them before the members of the Legislature of Massachusetts. On the 1st of December 1828, Nathan Hale, vice-president of the Massachusetts board of commissioners, addressed a letter to one of the New-York board, from which the following is an extract: "You will add to the obligations already conferred on us, if you will authorise and request your engineer to furnish us with copies of his plans and profiles of the survey from Albany to the line of this State, the expense thereof to be charged by him to our board." The copies and profiles were furnished accordingly by the petitioner, for which he asks remuneration from this State. The charge was disallowed by the Comptroller, on the ground that the expense was not incurred by the order and on the responsibility of our commissioners, but at the request and on the promise of payment by the Massachusetts board. The committee see nothing in the documents before them to vary this ground; but on the contrary, they think it confirmed by the extract before given. Nor can they perceive why any courtesy to a neighboring State should require this State to pay a claim, which, for aught that appears, the State of Massachusetts is ready to pay on being asked. The committee feel constrained to recommend the adoption of the following resolution : Resolved, That the prayer of the petition of George C. Young be denied, and that he have leave to withdraw the same. |