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THIRD DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER TERM, 1889.

The proceeding was taken for the purpose of opening and extending Grove and Jay streets, in the city of Amsterdam, under section 90 of chapter 131 of the Laws of 1885, which provided as follows:

§ 90. Whenever the common council shall have determined to lay out, alter, widen, straighten or extend, make, open or construct any street, alley, lane, highway, public ground or sewer, and to take and appropriate the land necessary for the same, and shall have determined to assess the expenses of such improvement, or any part thereof, as hereinafter provided, they shall give notice of such determination to the owner or owners of and other persons interested in the lands, by publishing the same once in each week, for four successive weeks, in the newspapers printed in said city, designated by the common council for the publication of official notices; such notice shall specify in general terms the improvement to be made, and shall state that such owner or owners and all persons interested in said lands, on or before a day to be specified, may file their claim for damages, if any they have, on account of such taking or appropriation, with the clerk of said city, and that, in case any claim for damages shall be filed as aforesaid, the said common council will apply at a time and place to be specified in said notice to a Special Term of the Supreme Court within the judicial district in which the said city is located, or the County Court of Montgomery county, for the appointment of three commissioners to ascertain and assess the damages so claimed. If any such claim. shall have been filed as aforesaid, the said common council, at the time and place in said notice specified, shall make application to said. court for the appointment of such commissioners, and any person who shall have filed such claim shall have a right to be heard on such application, and in case any person interested in or having a right to any lands sought to be taken shall not have filed a claim for damages, eight days' personal notice of the time and place of such application shall be given to such person or persons, or when such notice cannot be served personally within the State, or such person or persons are infants or otherwise incapacitated from receiving personal notice, then service of such notice may be made in such manner as the court may direct, and the said court shall have power to adjourn the hearing and to exercise general authority over the

THIRD DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER TERM, 1889.

proceedings in accordance with the rules and practice of said court, except as herein otherwise provided; the said commissioners having been duly appointed, shall enter upon the performance of their duties without delay. * * * "After the determination and assessment of the commissioners shall be returned to said common council, they shall give notice of the same by publishing for two successive weeks in the newspapers printed in said city, designated by the common council for the publication of official notices," a notice that such report has been filed with the city clerk, and may be examined by all the persons interested, and that at a time and place to be specified in said notice the said report will be presented at a circuit or Special Term of the Supreme Court held in the judicial district in which the county of Montgomery is situated, or the County Court of Montgomery county, for confirmation, and that all persons desiring to object to said report shall file their objections thereto in writing, with the city clerk before the day specified in such notice. And any party who may have appeared in the proceedings shall be entitled to the notice of such motion for confirmation in accordance with the rules and practice of the court. On the days specified in such notice, or on such other day or days as the said court may designate, the court shall hear the parties in regard to said report, and confirm such determination and assessment, or annul the same," etc

Edward P. White, for the petitioner, appellant.

Z. S. Westbrook, for the contestants, respondents. LEARNED, P. J.:

The commissioners appointed pursuant to the act, after determin ing the amount of the damages sustained by the owners of land taken for the improvement, assessed this amount upon property which they deemed to be benefited. This property was not confined to that which was bounded on the extended streets, but included that which was on other streets, some of which would appear to be quite far distant, a mile or more, as is said.

The learned justice before whom the matter was heard at Special Term was of the opinion that this assessment could not stand as to the property which was not bounded upon the extended streets.

THIRD DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER TERM, 1889.

He thought, however, that the language of the act could be construed to mean that the damage was to be assessed only on the land bounded on the extended streets. In that view it might be held that the notices which are required by the act were sufficient to notify these property owners that they would be assessed, and, therefore, an assessment on them might be held to be valid. The learned justice, therefore, set aside the assessment and sent the matter back for a new assessment in accordance with his views.

We fully concur with him that the assessment should be set aside. But we are of the opinion that a fair construction of the act does not limit the assessment to the property bounded on the extended streets. Considering that not merely street improvements, but the making of sewers and the opening of places are provided for by this same section, we think that the act intended that the commissioners might extend the assessment as far as in their sound judgment the benefits should extend.

Then arises another difficulty. The statute in no respect provides for notice to the persons who are thus to be assessed. Of course, we do not mean that personal notice is necessary. But we understand it to be settled law that some reasonable notice must be given to the persons to be affected before an assessment for damages occasioned by such improvements can be made.

The notice that the city proposes to extend such a street does not give the least notice to the person who will be assessed. A man owning property a mile away cannot conjecture that he will be assessed for an improvement which, as he thinks, does not benefit him. The notice published only informs the citizens that the street is to be extended. And, as construed by the city, every owner of property within the city limits must, at his peril, attend and see that he is not unjustly assessed.

The necessity of notice before such special burden can be imposed was, perhaps, not as carefully laid down some years ago as it has been more recently. (Stuart v. Palmer, 74 N. Y., 188.) But the doctrine, when suggested, must commend itself as sound.

We are of the opinion that there must have been given, in some way, a reasonable notice, not necessarily, perhaps, a personal notice, to the persons on whose land the commissioners lay this assessment

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THIRD DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER TERM, 1889.

before the assessment can be laid. And we are clearly of the opinion that nothing which the act directed, and nothing which was, in fact, done, constituted such notice. Of course, in such proceedings, a notice not authorized or directed by the act is of no effect to give validity to the assessment.

With these views, we affirm that part of the order which set aside the assessment, and reverse that part which sent the matter back for a reassessment. No costs of the appeal.

LANDON, J., concurred; FISH, J., not acting.

The part of the order setting aside assessment, affirmed; the part sending matter to new commissioners, reversed; no costs.

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THE THIRD NATIONAL BANK OF MALONE, RESPOND-
ENT, v. PATRICK H. SHIELDS, APPELLANT, IMPLEADED
WITH DANIEL SHANE.

Note secured by a chattel mortgage — right of the mortgagee to sue the indorsers on the note before foreclosing the mortgage-effect of the mortgagee taking the mortgaged chattels into his possession — practice — trial by jury — waiver.

The holder of a note secured by a chattel mortgage may, without first exhausting his remedy under the mortgage, sue the indorsers upon the note, who, if they desire the benefit of any securities held by the holder of the note, must pay up the debt and thereby become subrogated to the rights of the creditor in respect to such securities.

Where the holder of such a note takes possession of the mortgaged chattels and fails to sell them, the debt which they were hypothecated to secure is presumed to be paid in full, or to the extent of the proved value of the mortgaged chattels, and the only way in which the holder of the note can relieve himself from this presumption, is to sell the chattels at auction and thus ascertain the amount to be actually credited in extinguishment of the debt.

Where, however, the right of the mortgagee to such mortgaged chattels is disputed by a third party, and the same have not been sold because his right to them remains undetermined, such presumption of payment of the debt does not arise, and, as between the mortgagee and the indorsers upon the note held by him, the latter may be called upon to pay the note and thus become entitled to be subrogated to the rights of the mortgagee, and to the risk of the validity of his title, to the mortgaged chattels.

THIRD DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER TERM, 1889.

Plaintiff being ready for trial at the circuit, defendant objected, but finally consented that if the case might go over, it should be tried at Special Term, and it was so ordered. The same justice presided at both terms and enforced at the Special Term the agreement and order made at the Circuit.

Held, that a trial by jury was waived in open court.

APPEAL by the defendant Patrick H. Shields from a judgment, entered, after a trial at a Special Term held in Franklin county, in the office of the clerk of the county of Franklin on the 28th day of December, 1888, in favor of the plaintiff.

The action was upon three promissory notes made by Lyman J. Folsom and indorsed for his accommodation by the defendants Shields and Shane, and discounted for Folsom by the plaintiff. The plaintiff knew that the defendants were accommodation indorsers. The notes were given at different dates in October, 1886, and the last one fell due February 28, 1887. Default was made in payment of all the notes of which the indorsers had due notice.

Folsom died March 1, 1887. In November, 1886, while the plaintiff held the notes, Folsom gave to it a bill of sale or chattel mortgage upon thirty top carriages of Hotchkin's make, "to hold as collateral security for any and all over-drafts or past-due paper that they may have or hold." It was recited in the mortgage that these carriages were stored in "Mechanics' Hall" on the fair grounds in Malone.

In December, 1886, Folsom gave plaintiff another chattel mortgage on fifty other carriages of the same make, recited in the mortgage to be stored in the same hall. This mortgage was recited to be to secure the plaintiff in the sum of $3,500 and interest (the face of the notes), which Folsom owed plaintiff, and as security for any paper held by it indorsed by defendants. This mortgage gave the plaintiff a power of sale.

Folsom, in January following, gave to Adams and Martin a chattel mortgage upon fifty carriages, recited in the mortgage to be stored in the said Mechanics' Hall. This mortgage was given to secure Adams and Martin against their indorsements upon Folsom's notes for $2,000, then past due and held by the People's National Bank of Malone.

It was conceded upon the argument that the plaintiff's mortgages had priority of lien over the mortgage of Adams and Martin.

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