Commonwealth v. McCandless

Citations

• 129 Pa. 492
• 8 A. 159
• 1886 Pa. LEXIS 472

Syllabus

<p>1. The Court of Common Pleas of any county may by mandamus compel payment of a claim against the state, out of the state’s funds in the hands of the county treasurer, when the relator shows a clear legal right, that he has no other adequate legal remedy, and that it is the clear legal duty of the respondent to make such payment: Per Ewing, P. J.</p> <p>2. The act of April 22, 1846, P. L. 489, by fair implication conferred upon mercantile appraisers an authority to order publication of lists of persons assessed for mercantile taxes, except in the city and county of Philadelphia, and the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny: Per Ewing, P. J.</p> <p>3. And the authority thus conferred upon the mercantile appraiser of Allegheny county was distinctly limited by said act to a list of mercantile dealers in the portions of the county outside the cities of Allegheny and Pittsburgh, and no other statute directly or indirectly enlarged this power: Per Ewing, P. J.</p> <p>4. Whether, however, the mercantile appraiser has power to bind the ■ state by any such publication whatsoever, since the act of April 11,1862, P. L. 492, which, by directing personal notice to dealers over the state, has taken away all reason for the implied, authority under the act of 1846, is doubted: Per Ewing, P. J.</p> <p>5. At all events, the proprietor of a newspaper in which a list of all dealers in Allegheny county, including the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, was published by order of the mercantile appraiser, may not by mandamus compel payment of any part of the bill for such publication, when it is not shown what part thereof is for the list of dealers outside said cities.</p>