Opinion
Argued January 12, 1943
Decided March 11, 1943
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, THORN, J.
Philip Halpern, Emil L. Cohen and Morris Weinstein for defendants-appellants.
Ralph A. Lehr, County Attorney ( Maurice J. Rumizen of counsel), for County of Erie, respondent. Harold P. Kelly for Village of Depew, respondent.
Frederick T. Sherwood for Village of Hamburg, amicus curiae, in support of position of respondents. Selwyn R. Mack, Village Attorney, for Village of East Aurora, amicus curiae, in support of position of respondents.
In County of Nassau v. Lincer ( 280 N.Y. 662) and Village of Garden City v. Roeder ( 280 N.Y. 663) this court considered and necessarily decided that under section 116 of the Village Law, in villages the lien of both village and county taxes had priority in chronological order. We find nothing in the provisions of law applicable in Erie county which varies the statutory rule applied in those cases. The Legislature, noting the objections to the rule of priority formulated in the Village Law, has changed that rule by chapters 303 and 770 of the Laws of 1940, but the amendment is not retroactive.
The judgments so far as appealed from should be reversed and the matter remitted to the County Court to enter judgment fixing the order of priority of tax liens in accordance with this opinion, without costs.
LEHMAN, Ch. J., LOUGHRAN, FINCH, RIPPEY, LEWIS, CONWAY and DESMOND, JJ., concur.
Judgment accordingly.