Melville Fuller

“ If the forest preserve board is unable to agree with the owner upon the value of the property appropriated, the owner, within two years after the service upon him of the notice of appropriation, may present a claim for the value of the land to the court of claims, which has jurisdiction to hear and determine the same and to render judgment thereon. ”

“ In 1882 the railroad of the Adirondack Company extended from Saratoga Springs to North creek, and in that year the Adirondack Railway Company acquired all the rights of the Adirondack Company, and, under the reorganization laws of New York, organized itself with a life of a thousand years. ”

“ Section 8 read: 'The lands now or hereafter constituting the forest preserve shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be sold, nor shall they be leased or taken by any person or corporation, public or private.' The forest commission was created by the act, and in 1890 was authorized to 'purchase lands so located within such counties as include the forest preserve, as shall be available for the purposes of a state park,' and an appropriation was made for that purpose. ”

“ It is true that the state may delegate the power, and where it has done so to a railroad corporation, and by its exercise lands have been subjected to a public use, they cannot be applied to another public use without specific suthority, expressed or imperatively implied, to that effect. ”

“ Lawrence, Franklin, Essex, and Warren, was made part of the forest preserve, and declared to be 'forever reserved, maintained, and cared for as ground open for the free use of all the people for their health or pleasure, ans as forest lands necessary to the preservation of the headwaters of the chief rivers of the stae, and a future timber supply,' and the forest commission was given power to contract for the purchase of land subject to restrictions therein mentioned. ”

“ It is insisted however, that the constitutional limitations on the exercise of the power, though conditions merely and not part of the power itself, require that the owner shall have an opportunity to contest the legality of the taking, and that ultimate payment of just compensation must be secured. ”

“ By section 4 it was provided that when the board should have determined to appropriate certain lands, the state engineer should furnish it with an accurate description thereof certified by him to be correct; that a majority of the board should indorse on such description a certificate setting forth that the lands specified had been appropriated by the state for the purpose of making them a part of Adirondack park, which description and certificate should thereupon be filed in the office of the secretary of state ”