# People ex rel. Ferguson v. Reardon

> Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · March 20, 1908 · 124 A.D. 818

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5206001

## Case

- **Full name:** The People of the State of New York ex rel. John S. Ferguson v. Edward Reardon, a Peace Officer of the County of New York
- **Court:** Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
- **Decided:** March 20, 1908
- **Citations:** 124 A.D. 818; 109 N.Y.S. 504; 1908 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2203
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by McLaughlin
- **Judges:** McLaughlin, Scott
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5206001

## Opinion text

McLaughlin, J."(concurring):
The Legislature had the power to impose a tax upon the delivery or. transfer of shares or certificates of stock. (People ex rel. Hatch v. Reardon, 184 N. Y. 431 .) Having the power to impose the tax, it could also jiro vide the method of collection (Genet v. City of Brooklyn, 99 N. Y. 296 ); and, to aid in the collection, it could require that a book or memorandum should be kept by the person making the transfers, which should be open to the inspection of the jiroper authorities. (Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616 .) TSTor can the inspection be refused on the ground that it might furnish criminating evidence against the jierson required to keeji the book .or memorandum. ' (St. John v. New York, 201 U. S. 633 .) As was said in the Boyd case: “ The supervision authorized to be exercised by officers of the revenue over the manufacture or custody' of excisable articles, and the entries thereof in books required by law to be kept for their inspection, are necessarily excepted out of the category of unreasonable searches and seizures.”
The trouble with the statute, as I read it, is that it goes much *824 further than this. It purports to give the Comptroller and his representatives power to inspect not only the book or memorandum required by law to be kept, but the books and papers generally of persons liable for the tax. • It was the relator's refusal to comply ' with the demand for leave to inspect all his private books and papers generally for which he was held.
/The case, therefore, falls within the principle laid down in the Boyd Case {supra), and for that reason I concur in the conclusion reached by Mr. Justice Scott.
.Order reversed and relator discharged. Settle order on notice.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5206001. Public record. Not legal advice.