People Ex Rel. N.Y.C.R.R. Co. v. Limburg

The relator, a railroad corporation, resists as illegal a local improvement assessment against a strip of land, used exclusively for its right of way, imposed by the respondent town officers to meet the cost of a sanitary sewer. A reduction is also sought in a separate assessment for the same local improvement against the relator's railroad yards, upon the ground that only a portion of the land assessed will be benefited thereby.

The imposition of a tax or assessment is an act of sovereignty to be exercised by a municipal body only when delegated by the Legislature. (Matter of Long Island R.R.…