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100 U.S. 547

Williams v. Weaver

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided October 1, 1879

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1879-10

<p>The decision of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, that, in the absence of fraud or intentional wrong, the members of the board of assessors for the city of Albany are not personally liable in damages to a party for any error they commit in officially assessing his shares of national bank stock, does not present a Eederal question, and cannot be reviewed here.</p>

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The' Court of Appeals, in its opinion, conceding the assessment to be in many respects erroneous and to the prejudice of plaintiff, holds that, in the absence of fraud or intentional wrong, the defendants were not personally liable in damages for any error in the assessment! Whether that court decided that question correctly or not, it is not a Federal question, but one of general municipal law, to be governed either by the common law or the statute law of the State. In either case it presents no question on which this court is authorized to review the judgment of a státe court. That, decision is also conclusive of the whole case. If the defendants, in assessing property for taxation, incur no personal liability for any error they may commit, the fact that the error consisted in a misconstruction of an act of Congress can make no difference. An officer whose duty personally, as the Court of Appeals of New York holds, is mainly judicial, is no more liable for a mistaken construction of an act of Congress than he would be for mistaking the common law or a state statute.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Tyler v. Cass County

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · 9–0 · Decided 1879-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 1985

1 federal appellate · 9 state decisions

100187918801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1The decision of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, that, in the absence of fraud or intentional wrong, the members of the board of assessors for the city of Albany are not personally liable in damages to a party for any error they commit in officially assessing his shares of national bank stock, does not present a Eederal question, and cannot be reviewed here.

¶2Error to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York.

¶3The facts are- stated in the opinion of the court.

¶4Mr. George F. Fdrmmds and Mr. Matthew Sale for the plaintiff in error.

¶5Mr. B. W. Feckham, contra.

¶6Mr. Justice Miller

¶7delivered the opinion of the court.

¶8This suit, though between Williams, the relator in the preceding case, and the same defendants as there, and coming before us, by writ of error to the same court, is of a very different character. The plaintiff seeks to hold the defendants individually liable for the sum which he was compelled to pay as taxes on shares of national bank stock, by reason of the wrongful assessment for the year 1874, made by them in their official character as the board of assessors for the city of Albany.

¶9The errors in assessments complained of are numerous and of a varied character, most of them having relation to an improper discrimination to the prejudice of the rights of the plain'tiff and his assignors, as holders of such shares.

¶10The Court of Appeals, in its opinion, conceding the assessment to be in many respects erroneous and to the prejudice of plaintiff, holds that, in the absence of fraud or intentional wrong, the defendants were not personally liable in damages *548for any error in the assessment. Whether that court decided that question correctly or not, it is not a Federal' question, but one of general municipal law, to be governed either by the common law or the statute law of the State. In either case it presents no question on which this court is authorized to review the judgment of a State court.

¶11That decision is also conclusive of the whole case. If the defendants, in assessing property for taxation, incur no personal liability for any error they may commit, the fact that the error consisted in a misconstruction of an act of Congress can make no difference. An officer whose duty personally, as the Court of Appeals of New York holds, is mainly judicial, is no more liable for a mistaken construction of an act of Congress than he would be for mistaking the common law or a State statute.

¶12We may observe, also, that the Federal right mainly relied on here as having been violated, namely, the right to have plaintiff’s indebtedness deducted from the valuation of his bank shares, was not raised, because he did not, as in the previous case, make the necessary affidavit and demand.

¶13On the whole, there is no error which this court can review.

¶14Judgment affirmed.

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