Section 11. Soldiers and sailors' home exempted. 12. Powers and duties of board on visits and inspections. 13. Investigations of institutions. 14. Orders of board directed to institutions. 15. Correction of evils in administration of institutions. 16. Duties of the attorney-general and district attorneys. 17. State, nonresident and alien poor. 18. Transfers of inmates of state charitable institutions. 19. Reports of state board of charities. 20. Institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind. § 3. State board of charities. There shall continue to be a state board of charities, composed of twelve members, who shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, one of whom shall be appointed from and reside in each judicial district of the state, and three from the city of New York, who shall reside in such city. They shall be known as commissioners of the state board of charities, and hold office for eight years. No commissioner shall qualify or enter upon the duties of his office, or remain therein, while he is a trustee, manager, director or other administrative officer of an insti tution subject to the visitation and inspection of such board. The commissioners in office at the time this chapter takes effect shall continue in office for the terms for which they were respectively appointed. § 4. Officers of the board. The board may elect a presi dent and vice-president from its own members, and shall appoint and continue to have a secretary, and may appoint such other officers, inspectors and clerks as it may deem necessary or proper and fix their compensation, who shall respectively hold their offices during the pleasure of the board. § 5. Compensation and expenses of commissioners. The compensation of each commissioner, in recognition of the provisions of the constitution, is fixed at ten dollars for each day's attendance at meetings of the board or of any of its committees, not exceeding in any one year the sum of five hundred dollars. The expenses of each commissioner, necessarily incurred while engaged in the performance of the duties of his office, and his outlay for any assistance that may have been required in the performance of such duties, on the same being paid out and certified by the commissioner making the charge, shall be paid by the treasurer, on the warrant of the comptroller. Commissioners not entitled to compensation for time spent in going to or returning from meetings. STATE OF NEW YORK, JAMES O. FANNING, Esq., Assistant Secretary State Board of Charities, Albany, N. Y.: DEAR SIR.I am in receipt of your communication of this date, in which you inquire concerning the compensation to be allowed Commissioners of the State Board of Charities. Section 6, of Chapter 771, of the Laws of 1895, provides for the compensation and expenses of the commissioners and directs that each commissioner shall receive as compensation the sum of ten dollars for each day's attendance at meetings of the board, or any of its committees (not to exceed in all the sum of $500 per annum for each commissioner) and the expenses of the commissioner while engaged in the performance of the duties of his office. You ask whether a commissioner, under the provisions of the section referred to is entitled to charge for the time spent in traveling to and from meetings of the commissioners in addition to his ten dollars per diem for each day's attendance at such meeting. The section is self-explanatory, and seems to require no interpretation. I am very clearly of the opinion that the members of the commission can only charge the sum of ten dollars per diem for the days in which they are actually engaged in attendance at meetings of the board, or of its committees, and that they are not permitted under the Statute to include the time spent in going to and returning from any such meeting. Yours respectfully, T. E. HANCOCK, Attorney-General. § 6. Meetings and effect of nonattendance. The board may adopt rules and orders, regulating the discharge of its functions and defining the duties of its officers. It shall, by rule, provide for holding stated and special meetings. Six members regularly convened shall constitute a quorum. The failure on the part of any commissioner to attend three consecutive meetings of the board during any calendar year, unless excused by a formal vote of the board, may be treated by the governor as a resignation by such nonattending commissioner and the governor may appoint his successor. The annual reports of the board shall give the names of commissioners present at each of its meetings. § 7. Office room and supplies. The trustees of public buildings shall furnish and assign to such board, in the capitol, at Albany, suitably furnished rooms for its office and place of holding meetings, and the comptroller shall furnish it with all necessary journals, account books, blanks and stationery. § 8. Official seal, certificates and subpoenas. The board shall cause a record to be kept of its proceedings by its secretary or other proper officer, and it shall have and use an official seal; and the records of its proceedings and copies of all papers and documents in its possession and custody may be authenticated in the usual form, under such seal and the signature of its president or secretary, and shall be received in evidence in the same manner and with like effect as deeds regularly acknowledged. or proven; it may issue subpoenas, which, when authenticated by its president and secretary, shall be obeyed and enforced in the same manner as obedience is enforced to an order or mandate made by a court of record. § 9. General powers and duties of board. The state board of charities shall visit, inspect and maintain a general supervision of all institutions, societies or associations which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, whether state or municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, which are made subject to its supervision by the constitution or by law; and shall 1. Aid in securing the just, humane and economic administration of all institutions subject to its supervision. 2. Advise the officers of such institutions in the performance of their official duties. 3. Aid in securing the erection of suitable buildings for the accommodation of the inmates of such institutions aforesaid. 4. Approve or disapprove the organization and incorporation of all institutions of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character which are or shall be subject to the supervision and inspection of the board. 5. Investigate the management of all institutions made subject to the supervision of the board, and the conduct and efficiency of the officers or persons charged with their management, and the care and relief of the inmates of such institution therein or in transit. 6. Aid in securing the best sanitary condition of the buildings and grounds of all such institutions, and advise measures for the protection and preservation of the health of the inmates. The beneficiary of a charitable trust may not hold the corporation administering the trust, liable for the neglect of its servants, but this immunity does not affect the rights of those who are not such beneficiaries. This action was brought to recover for personal injuries received by the plaintiff, a journeyman mechanic, who was engaged in making repairs on a boiler on defendant's premises. Defendant contends that, being a religious or charitable corporation, it cannot be held liable for the torts or negligence of its agents or servants; that the rule of respondeat superior has no application to such a corporation. Held, that in this case the plaintiff bore the same relation to the defendant as he would have to any other owner of property on whose premises he was called to work, and that defendant is not entitled to immunity from liability upon the ground claimed. Hordern v. Salvation Army, 131 App. Div., 900, reversed. Court of Appeals, September 27, 1910; Hordern v. Salvation Army, 199 N. Y., 233. 7. Aid in securing the establishment and maintenance of such industrial, educational and moral training in institutions having the care of children as is best suited to the needs of the inmates. 8. Establish rules for the reception and retention of inmates of all institutions which, by section fourteen of article eight of the constitution, are subject to its supervision. Court of Appeals, October, 1902, People ex rel. Inebriates' Home for Kings County v. Comptroller of the City of Brooklyn, 152 N. Y. 399. Court of Ap peals, October, 1897, People ex rel. New York Institution for the Blind v. Comptroller of the City of New York, 154 N. Y. 14. Court of Appeals, Octo ber, 1902, in re application of the New York Juvenile Asylum, appellant, for writ of mandamus, v. John W. Keller, as commissioner of public charities in the city of New York, respondent, 172 N. Y. 50. 9. Investigate the condition of the poor seeking public aid and advise measures for their relief. 10. Administer the laws providing for the care, support and removal of state and alien poor and the support of Indian poor persons. 11. Collect statistical information in respect to the property receipts and expenditures of all institutions, societies and associa tions subject to its supervision, and the number and condition of the inmates thereof, and of the poor receiving public relief. § 10. Visitation, inspection and supervision of institutions. All institutions of a charitable, eleemosynary, reformatory or correctional character or design, including reformatories (except those now under the supervision and subject to the inspection of the prison commission), but including all reformatories, except those in which adult males convicted of felony shall be confined, asylums and institutions for idiots and epileptics. alms-houses, orphan asylums, and all asylums, hospitals and institutions, whether state, county, municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, private or otherwise, except institutions for the custody, care and treatment of the insane, are subject to the visitation, inspection and supervision of the state board of charities, its members, officers and inspectors. Such institutions may be visited and inspected by such board, or any member, officer or inspector duly appointed by it for that purpose, at any and all times. Such board or any member thereof may take proofs and hear testimony relating to any matter before it, or before such member, upon any such visit or inspection. Any member or officer of such board, or inspector duly appointed by it, shall have full access to the grounds, buildings, books and papers relating to any such institution, and may require from the officers and persons in charge thereof any information he may deem necessary in the discharge of his duties. The board may prepare regulations according to which, and provide blanks and forms upon which, such information shall be furnished, in a clear, uni form and prompt manner, for the use of the board. No such officer or inspector shall divulge or communicate to any person without the knowledge and consent of said board any facts or infor mation obtained pursuant to the provisions of this chapter; on proof of such divulgement or communication such officer or inspector may at once be removed from office. The annual reports of each year shall give the results of such inquiries, with the opinion and conclusions of the board relating to the same. Any officer. |