JUDGES AND OFFICERS OF THE COURT OF CLAIMS IN 1915. ADOLPH J. RODEN BECK, Presiding Judge, Rochester, N. Y. Deputy Clerks also acting as Court Stenographers. RUPERT O. BURROWS, Rochester, N. Y. 1Appointed on April 19, 1915, by the Governor as an additional judge pursuant to section 282 of the Code of Civil Procedure as added by chapter 1 of the Laws of 1915. 2Appointed on April 19, 1915, by the Governor as an additional judge. Resigned on May 4, 1915. 3Appointed on December 29, 1915, by the Governor as an additional judge to fill the unexpired term of Judge Willis. 4 Clerk of the former Board of Claims acting as clerk of the Court of Claims pursuant to section 266 of the Code of Civil Procedure as amended by chapter 1 of the Laws of 1915. 5Appointed clerk of the Court of Claims on March 22, 1915, to take effect on April 15, 1915. [4] No. 48 IN SENATE April 12, 1916 Fifteenth Annual Report of the Court of Claims of the State of New York COURT OF CLAIMS CLERK'S OFFICE, ALBANY, April 12, 1916 Hon. EDWARD SCHOENECK, President of the Senate: DEAR SIR.I have the honor to transmit herewith to you for the Legislature of the State of New York the fifteenth annual report of the Court of Claims of the State of New York, as required by law. Very respectfully yours, FREDERICK D. COLSON, Clerk. REPORT To the Legislature of the State of New York: In accordance with the requirements of section 271 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Court of Claims submits its fifteenth annual report.* The Court of Claims having been re-established by chapter 1 of the Laws of 1915, it seems appropriate at this time to state briefly the previous history of the Court. The State being sovereign is not amenable to private claims against it on the part of its citizens except with its consent as conferred by some statute. The purpose of the statutes enacted in this State with respect to the hearing of claims against the State has been to provide some body, board or court, vested with jurisdiction to pass upon such claims. In the early history of the State, when the claims began to multiply out of the construction of the original canal system of the State, the auditing officers, so far as that task was not performed by the Legislature itself, were known as canal appraisers and it was their function to pass upon the amount that should be allowed to persons from whom land had been taken for the construction or maintenance of the canal or who had otherwise been damaged by that improvement. The Legislature meanwhile was passing upon private claims. directly by means of appropriations, but this practice became so unsatisfactory that the Constitution was amended in 1874 so as to prohibit the Legislature from auditing or allowing any private claim or account against the State. (Article 3, § 19.) This prohibition made it necessary for the Legislature to provide some other means for auditing private claims and for that While this report is the first annual report to be submitted by the Court of Claims as re-established by chapter 1 of the Laws of 1915, it is, taking into consideration the entire history of the court from its first establishment by chapter 36 of the Laws of 1897, the fifteenth report to be made by the body designated as the Court of Claims, and to avoid the confusion that would result from having two reports of the Court of Claims bear the same number, it has been thought wise to continue the numbering from the reports of the previous court. purpose it created the Board of Audit, consisting of the Comptroller, Secretary of State and State Treasurer, who were authorized to hear all private claims and accounts against the State, except such as were then heard by the canal appraisers. (Laws of 1876, chapter 442; Quayle v. State, 192 N. Y. 47.) This board, consisting of State officers, continued to audit claims and accounts against the State to be paid out of appropriations made by the Legislature until 1883 when both the canal appraisers and the State Board of Audit were abolished and the Board of Claims was created in their stead with jurisdiction to hear, audit and determine all private claims against the State, except such as were required by law to be audited by other State officers. (Laws of 1883, chapter 205.) This Board continued until 1897, when there was created in its place a Court of Claims with a simple procedure and with somewhat enlarged jurisdiction. (Laws of 1897, chapter 36.) In 1911 the Court of Claims as a "court" was abolished and the Board of Claims was revived with substantially the same powers and jurisdiction as the Court of Claims. (Laws of 1911, chapter 856; Peo. ex rel. Swift v. Luce, 204 N. Y. 478.) The Board of Claims in its turn was abolished in 1915 and the Court of Claims revived. (Laws of 1915, chapters 1 and 100.) In re-establishing the Court of Claims in 1915, the Legislature made three important changes in the pre-existing system. 1. Only one of the three commissioners constituting the Board of Claims was required to be "an attorney and counselor-at-law of at least ten years' experience in practice," whereas every judge of the Court of Claims must be " an attorney and counselor-at-law admitted to practice in the courts of this State, of at least ten years' experience in practice." 2. While the court is made up regularly of three judges, provision was made for additional judges as follows: "The number of judges to constitute the Court of Claims may be increased to not more than five as provided by this section. If the Attorney-General shall at any time certify to the Governor in writing that the accumulation of business in the Court of Claims requires for the disposal thereof an additional judge or judges, specifying the number, not more |