The People ex rel. Thomas T. Buckley, Treasurer, etc., Respondent, v. The Board of Police and Excise of the City of Brooklyn et al., Appellants

The People ex rel. Thomas T. Buckley, Treasurer, etc., Respondent, v. The Board of Police and Excise of the City of Brooklyn et al., Appellants. (Argued November 16, 1875; decided November 23, 1875.) The board, of police and excise of the city of Brooklyn cannot contest the rights of the treasurer of the Inebriates’ Home of Kings County to that portion of the excise moneys collected by them under the amended charter of 1873 (chap. 863, Laws of 1873), which, by the act of 1873, in reference to said institution (chap. 687, Laws of 1872), is required to be paid to its treasurer; his right thereto being affirmed by said charter. (Sec. 3.) Said board having received the money in a ministerial capacity, as public agents, have no discretion as to its disposal; they cannot refuse to pay it over to the institution for which they received it, and a writ of mandamus is proper to compel them so to do. This was an appeal from an order of the General Term, affirming an order of Special Term, granting a peremptory mandamus commanding defendant to pay to the relator, the treasurer of the Inebriates’ Home of Kings County, twelve per cent of the amount of moneys in their hands collected for ■licenses issued by them, which per centage, by the act of 1872, providing means for the support of said home (§ 1, chap. 687, Laws of 1872), the commissioners of excise of the city of Brooklyn were required to pay to said treasurer for the benefit •of the institution. Held, as above. (See People ex rel. v: Brown, 55 N. Y., 180.) John H. Knaebel for the appellants. D. M. De Witt for the respondent. [MAJORITY — Allen, J.,] Allen, J., reads for affirmance. All concur. Order affirmed.