PREFACE. The law relating to the office of Supervisor, the powers which it confers upon the Supervisor and the duties he is required to perform individually, and in connection with the various other town offices as well as the duties he is called upon to discharge as a member of the Board of Supervisors and of the Board of County Canvassers of Election Returns, is in a fearfully chaotic condition. Hardly any question that could be suggested in relation thereto could be answered by a good lawyer, without careful and painstaking investigation. And yet, next to the Governor of the State, the Supervisor is required to transact more important business, and to discharge more varied and intricate duties, than any officer in the State. In one sense, at least, the whole machinery of the government of the State rests upon him; for, without the affirmative action of the Board of Supervisors, not a dollar of taxation can be levied upor, or collected from," the people. Without his consent no charge against town or county can be collected. He is a member of the Board of Town Auditors, which has the auditing of all amounts against the towns; he is a member of the Board of Supervisors, which has the auditing of all county charges. In the discharge of these varied duties, very intricate, as well as complicated, questions frequently arise. A Supervisor, and the Board of Supervisors, are called upon to discharge functions, Ministerial, Administrative, Legislative and Judicial. He is the governor of his town; and, as a member of the Board of Supervisors, one of the governors of his county. The law relating to this important office, defining and regulating the discharge of the duties appertaining there*A majority of the board audits. to, needs revision and consolidation and simplification. Commencing with the Revised Statutes of 1828, the Legislature, at almost every annual session since then, has gone on adding to, amending, repealing, modifying, extending, recalling and duplicating provisions of the law, until it has become next to impossible to determine what the law is, without careful examination. This, the practicing lawyer has not the time to do, and he looks around in vain for some practical work that will aid him to turn to just what he wants. When the lawyer, whose whole life has been devoted to the study and examination of the law, is thus circumstanced, how must it be with the Supervisor, called from the farm or some of the other busy vocations of life, where no opportunity has been afforded for legal training or experience? When, to the confusion resulting from hasty and illdigested legislation, piling one statute upon another, almost in the same words, and the extensive powers of local legislation vested in Boards of Supervisors by the Act of 1875 (chap. 482), you superadd the conflicting decisions of the courts, extending to the court of last resort, in construing these varied and complicated laws, it presents a case that calls foudly for legislative action. While the law remain in its present condition, the best thing that could be done. was to prepare a work in which the law, as enacted by the Legislature and as enlarged by judicial interpretation, might be arranged in as simple and practical a form as possible, to lighten the labors of the professional man and to furnish to the Supervisor, and the other town and county officers with whom he is called upon to transact business, a ready means of ascertaining what their duties are, and how to discharge them. Such as it is, this volume is sent forth with the sincere hope that it may be useful and convenient to all who have occasion to use it. BUFFALO, December, 1888. GEO. W. COTHRAN. |