464 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



U is urged that the orders are not appealable, for the reason that the granting or withholding of 

 the writ was wholly within the sound discretion of the court below, and the reasons which induced it 

 to act or refrain from acting are not open to review. This objection is not well taken. The writs 

 were quashed on the specific ground that "the relator, the forest commission, has no power or 

 authority in a case like this to obtain or prosecute such writ." 



This is a final order in a special proceeding, and, as it determines the same, it is reviewable in 

 this court. {PcopU ex yd. Vanderbilt v. Stilivell, 19 N. V. 532 ; Pi'ople ex re/. Mayor v. McCarthy 

 ct a/.. 102 N. Y. 631 ; People ex rel. Second Avenue R. R. Co. v. Board of Cotnrs., etc., 

 96 N. Y. 37, 42.) 



The second objection is to the eflfect that this appeal has abated by reason of the repeal of chapter 

 283 of the Laws of 1885, creating the commission, by chapter 395 of the Laws of 1895, whereby a 

 new forest commission was created, without providing that the new board should be substituted for 

 the old in pending suits, and that no motion has been made to revive these proceedings in the name 

 of the new board. 



It is true that, by the schedule of " Laws Repealed," annexed to chapter 398 of the Laws of 1895, 

 it appears that chapter 283 of the Laws of 1885 is repealed, but it also appears, by the schedule 

 annexed to chapter 332 of the Laws of 1893, that the Law of 1885 was repealed at that time. This 

 repetition is obviously a mistake. 



This objection is without force, however, for the reason that the Statutory Construction Law 

 (Chap. 677, Laws 1892) contains general saving clauses as to all legis'.^tion carrying out the revision 

 of the general laws. 



Section 31 reads in part as follows, viz. : 



" The repeal of a statute or a part thereof shall not affect or impair any act done or right accruing, 

 accrued or acquired, or liability, penalty, forfeiture or punishment incurred prior to the time such 

 repeal takes effect, but the same may be asserted, enforced, prosecuted or inflicted, as fully and to 

 the same extent as if such repeal had not been effected ; and all actions and proceedings, civil and 

 criminal, commenced under or by virtue of any provision of a statute so repealed, and pending 

 immediately prior to the taking effect of such repeal, may be prosecuted and defended to final effect 

 in the same manner as they might if such provisions were not so repealed." 



Section 32 contains the following : " The provisions of any chapter of the revision of the general 

 laws, of which this chapter is a part, so far as they are substantially the same as those of laws existing 

 at the time such chapter takes effect, shall be construed as a continuation of such laws, modified or 

 amended according to the language employed in such provisions, and not as new enactments." 



The policy of the legislature in treating repealing statutes as amendatory in character is further 

 illustrated in this connection by enactments subsequent to these proceedings. Chapter 488 of the 

 Laws of 1892, section 276, being an act for the protection, preservation and propagation offish, birds 

 and wild animals in the State of New York, and the different counties thereof, and which is at the 

 present time a part of the " Fisheries, Game and Forest Law," as existing January 1st, 1896. (i R. 

 S. [Banks' 9th ed. ] p. 871.) See, also, sections 304, 305 of the statute last referred to {pp. 931, 932). 



We are of opinion that the forest commission since its creation under the Laws of 1885 has been a 

 continuous body, and that all actions and proceedings instituted by it may be prosecuted and 

 defended to final effect the same as if the act of 1885 had not been repealed. 



We, therefore, overrule the preliminary objections to the hearing of this appeal, and come to the 

 consideration of the merits. 



The respondent insists that the forest commission is not a party aggrieved under section 21 27 of 

 the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that ''an application for a writ must be made by or in 

 behalf of the person aggrieved by the determination to be reviewed." Also, that the commission is 

 not a body corporate, and must act in the names of the individuals composing it. 



These points will be considered together. 



It is necessary to determine the precise powers conferred upon the forest commission by chapter 

 283 of the Laws of 1887. The first section of the act creates the commission ; the seventh section 

 defines what lands shall be known as the forest preserve, and the ninth section declares "the forest 



