Composition of Board. The number of commissioners was changed from three to five in the charter, and from five to seven by the amendment of 1904, as was also the provision that one of the number shall be a lawyer. The increase in salary first appears in the charter of 1897. By the amendment of 1904, the provision as to the political and territorial division of the board, was added. The term of office fixed at six years in the Consolidation Act, is omitted here, and is presumably governed by section 95 of the Charter, viz.: Subject to the discretion of the mayor.

Devolution of power.-All of the rights, powers and duties heretofore devolved by law upon the board of taxes and assessments in the city of New York, upon the department of assessments of the city of Brooklyn, and upon like departments, boards or officers of taxes and assessments other than for street improvements in the other municipal and public corporations or parts of municipal and public corporations. consolidated by this act with the municipal corporation known as the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York are hereby devolved, unless otherwise herein expressly provided, upon and vested in the board of taxes and assessments in the city of New York. The said board of taxes and assessments in the city of New York is hereby authorized to adopt a common seal. Copies of all books and papers duly filed in the office of the department of taxes and assessments, and transcripts thereof, and of the records of the proceedings of the board of taxes and assessments, certified to by one of the commissioners of taxes and assessments, or by one of the deputy commissioners of taxes and assessments, or by the secretary of the board of taxes and assessments, and under the common seal of the board of taxes and assessments, shall be admissible in evidence in all courts and places in same manner and for the same purposes as books, papers or documents similarly authenticated by the clerk of a county. (Sec. 886, Charter, as amended by L. 1904, ch. 375.)

Source: The provisions of sec. 886 are new. The provision as to the department's seal, and the admission in evidence of transcripts or copies of records from the department, was added by amendment in 1904, after the decision in City v. Vanderveer, 91 App. Div. 303 (1904).

Deputy tax commissioners; how appointed; their duties. The board of taxes and assessments shall appoint persons to be known as deputy tax commissioners, not exceeding forty in number, who shall

perform, under the direction and supervision of the board of taxes and assessments, such duties as the said board shall prescribe. The said board shall give such directions to the deputy tax commissioners as it shall think expedient to secure in all the boroughs and parts of the city equality of valuations of property for the purposes of taxation. The number of deputy tax commissioners above prescribed may from time to time be increased by the appointment of the board of taxes and assessments, provided such increase is authorized by the board of estimate and apportionment. (Sec. 887, Charter.)

Source: In substance the same as sec. 813, ch. 410, L. 1882 (Consol. Act [L. 1859, ch. 302, sec. 3], with the exception of the number of deputies.)

Deputies are ministerial, not judicial officers.- While under section 813 of the Consolidation Act (section 887, Charter), the deputy tax commissioners are required to perform "such duties as the commissioners shall prescribe," it is not to be assumed that this authorizes the tax commissioners to delegate their judicial function to the deputies. People ex rel. Conway v. Barker, 14 Misc. 360 (367).

The statute evidently gives the Board the right to impose upon the deputy tax commissioners any duty of whatever nature, which are reasonably or necessarily incidental to the operation of the department, whether prescribed by law or not.

Appointment of deputy tax commissioners among the boroughs. -In making appointments of the deputy tax commissioners the head of the department of taxes and assessments shall apportion such appointments as nearly as may be, among persons residing in the several boroughs created by this act, according to the population of the several boroughs; and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and two, no person shall be appointed to the office of deputy tax commissioner unless he shall be at the time he is appointed and shall have been at least one year prior thereto an elector in the borough from which he is appointed. No deputy tax commissioner shall be assigned to assess property in any other borough than that from which he is appointed, except by the vote of the board of taxes and assessments, and in that case the reasons for such an assignment shall be stated in the minutes of the board. (Sec. 888, Charter, as amended by chapter 330, Laws 1905.)

The provisions of this section are new.

Deputy tax commissioners; duties of in assessing taxable property. It shall be the duty of the deputy tax commissioners, under the direction of the board of taxes and assessments, to assess all the taxable property in the several districts that may be assigned to them for that purpose by said board, and they shall furnish to the said board, under oath, a detailed statement of all such property, showing that said deputies have personally examined each and every house, building, lot, pier, or other assessable property, giving the street, lot, ward, town and map number of such real estate embraced within said districts, together with the name of the owner or occupant, if known, also the sum for which, in their judgment, each separately assessed parcel of real estate under ordinary circumstances would sell, if it were wholly unimproved; and separately stated, the sum for which under ordinary circumstances, the same parcel of real estate would sell, with the improvements, if any, thereon; with such other information in detail relative to personal property or otherwise, as the said board may, from time to time, require. Such deputies shall commence to assess real and personal estate on the first day in April in each and every year not a Sunday or a legal holiday. (Sec. 889, N. Y. Charter, as amended in 1903, and by ch. 455, L. 1911.)

Source: Sec. 814, ch. 410, L. 1882 (Consol. Act) [L. 1859, ch. 302, sec. 7], with the exception of the separate assessment of the land and improvements, which was added by ch. 454, L. 1903, and the date of the commencement of assessment amended in 1911.

The deputy tax commissioners are not independent officers, and as the assessment of property referred to under this section of the charter is "under the direction of the board of taxes and assessments," it may be assumed to be the act of the board. People ex rel. Thompson v. Feitner, 168 N. Y. 441 (453).

"Detailed statement" refers to real and not to personal.The provisions of this section requiring the deputy tax commissioners "to personally examine 'each and every house, building, lot, pier, or other assessable property' and to furnish under oath to the commissioners of taxes a detailed statement of such property," refer to real property and not to personal. In re McMahon v. Palmer, 102 N. Y. 176 (1886). It seemed that the detailed statement here referred to is not part of the "Annual

Record," but constitutes a record of the Department. People ex rel. Zollikoffer v. Feitner, 34 Misc. 299, aff'd 63 App. Div. 615; aff'd 168 N. Y. 674.

Under sec. 889 of the Charter, it is the duty of the assessors to assess real property at its actual value. People ex rel. Manhattan Ry. Co. v. Barker, 146 N. Y. 304.

Oath of assessor.- The testimony of an assessor is not admissible to impeach his oath. Brooklyn El. R. R. v. City of Brooklyn, 11 App. Div. 132-133.

The only oath to be taken by an officer connected with the making of assessments under the charter, is the oath required to be made by the deputy commissioner under section 889 of the charter, annexed to the "Annual Record of Assessed Valuations of Real and Personal Estate." People ex rel. Zollikoffer v. Feitner, supra. This oath is not prematurely made, even if taken before the time the books of annual record are directed by statute to be open for examination, provided the record itself is complete at that time. McMahon v. Palmer, supra.

Offices of the department in the boroughs.-There shall be an office of the department of taxes and assessments in the Borough of Brooklyn, a like office of the department in the Borough of Queens, a like office of the department in the Borough of Richmond, and a like office in the department of the Borough of the Bronx; at which the duties of the department of taxes and assessments pertaining to the assessment of property in the said several boroughs shall, under the direction of the board of taxes and assessments, be performed by such number of the deputy tax commissioners or other employees of the department of taxes and assessments as the said department may decide to be necessary and assign to such duties. Such offices shall in law be a part of the main office, and the main office of the department of taxes and assessments shall be maintained in the Borough of Manhattan. The books, maps, assessment rolls, files and records pertaining to the department of taxes and assessments of the municipality heretofore designated as the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the City of New York, of the department of assessment of the City of Brooklyn and of each and every of the like offices in any of the mu

nicipal and public corporations, or parts of municipal and public corporations consolidated by this act with the municipal corporation of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the City of New York, shall be delivered into and thereafter be in the custody and control of the department of taxes and assessments hereby constituted, to be kept in such of the offices of the said department as may be most convenient to the taxpayers and suitable to the proper discharge of the business of such department, and shall be public records, and at all reasonable times open to public inspection. (Sec. 890, Charter.)

Source: Principally new, but partly covered by sec. 812, ch. 410, L. 1882 (Consol. Act); L. 1859, ch. 302, sec. 6.

This section of the charter evidently gives the Board of Taxes power to impose duties upon its clerical force or "employees," other than those of a clerical nature. Section 887 of the Charter also gives the Board the right to confer upon deputy tax commissioners any duties of whatever nature incidental to the operation of the Department.

Annual record of assessed valuation; what to contain and when to be open for examination and correction.-There shall be kept in the several offices established by the department of taxes and assessments books to be called "the annual record of the assessed valuation of real and personal estate of the Borough of

-," in which

shall be entered in detail the assessed valuation of such property within the limits of the several boroughs of the city of New York as established by this act. In such books the assessed value of real estate shall be set down in two columns; in the first column shall be given, opposite each separately assessed parcel of real estate, the sum for which such parcel under ordinary circumstances, would sell if wholly unimproved; and in the second column shall be set down the sum for which the said parcel under ordinary circumstances would sell, with the improvements, if any, thereon. The annual record of the assessed valuation of real property shall be open for public inspection, examination and correction from the first day in October not a Sunday or a legal holiday until the sixteenth day of November in each year, and the annual record of the assessed valuation of personal estate shall be open for public inspection, examination and correction from the first day in October not a Sunday or a legal holiday until the first day of December in each year; but on the said respective days, the same shall be closed to enable the board of taxes and assessments to prepare assessment rolls of the several boroughs for delivery to the