45Q 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



SUPREME COURT, 

 St. Lawrence Special Term, October, 1898. 



Ferris J. Meigs, 



vs. 



James A. Roberts, as Comptroller of the State 



of New York. 



John P. Badger, for plaintiff. 



Theodore E. Hancock, Attorney-General, for defendant. 



Russell, J. : Standing in front of any view of the merits of the controversy between the 

 plaintiff and the State of New York as to the validity of plaintiff's title to the real estate in con- 

 troversy, is the question of right to test the merits of plaintiff's claim in an action of ejectment 

 brought against the Comptroller of the State. If a determination in favor of the plaintiff would 

 produce only a barren judgment then the action will not lie to determine an abstract question. 

 If the servant of the State has no such actual occupancy that the judgment against him would 

 prevent other agents of the State from acts of possession or protection over the property, then 

 this action cannot be maintained for any effective purpose. 



The subject of the controversy is wild land embraced within the Forest Preserve and claimed 

 by the State under tax sales. The Act of the Legislature establishing a Forest Commission, and 

 defining its powers and duties and for the preservation of the forests, is chapter 283 of the 

 Laws of 1885. By that Act all lands owned or thereafter acquired by the State within certain 

 counties should constitute the Forest Preserve, be kept forever as wild forest lands, and the 

 Forest Commissioners should have the care, custody, control and superintendence of the Pre- 

 serve. Sections 7, 8 and 9. 



The duties of the Forest Commissioners, Warden, Inspectors and Foresters are specifically 

 designated by sections 9, 10 and n, and by the latter section the Forest Commissioners are 

 empowered to bring, in the name of the People, actions to recover damages for injuries and 

 trespasses and also to prevent such injuries. 



By the legislation of the State, lands may be acquired by purchase for the People of the 

 State, to be included in the Forest Preserve, and also by tax sales, in the consummation of which 

 the Comptroller, as the officer of the State, has certain duties to perfect the title so that the 

 lands bought in by the State upon tax sales may be turned over to the proper Board to whose 

 custody, from the moment the State acquires the lands, the property accruing to the State shall 

 be confided. 



The plaintiff insists that he has the right to maintain ejectment against the Comptroller, in 

 order that the Court may decide that the State did not properly acquire the lands now claimed 

 by him, by force of Section 13 of chapter 711, Laws of 1893, which is here quoted : 



"Section 13. Possession of lands by the State. The Comptroller may advertise 

 once a week for at least three weeks successively, a list of the wild, vacant and forest 

 lands to which the State holds title, from a tax sale or otherwise, in one or more news- 

 papers to be selected by him, published in the county in which the lands are situated, 

 and from and after the expiration of such time, all such wild, vacant and forest lands 

 are hereby declared to be and shall be deemed to be in the actual possession of the 

 Comptroller, and such possession shall be deemed to continue until he has been dis- 

 possessed by the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction." 



