William Howard Taft

“ It appears from chapters 90 and 443 of Laws of New York, 1921, that the powers and duties vested in the Comptroller have been transferred to the Tax Commission; but this does not, of itself, justify the substitution of the Commission for the Comptroller in a suit which is in its essence a personal suit to prevent his personal violation of law and the rights of the complainant. ”

“ A suit to enjoin a public officer from enforcing a statute or to compel him to act by mandamus is personal, and, in the absence of statutory provision for continuing it against his his successor, abates upon his death or retirement from office. In United States v. Butterworth, 169 U.S. 600, 18 Sup. Ct. 441, 42 L. Ed. 873, the suit was to compel Butterworth, the Commissioner of Patents, by mandamus to issue a patent. Butterworth died pending the suit, and this court refused to allow the plaintiff in error to substitute his successor, although that successor consented to the substitution. ”

“ But that principle is not helpful here because the inherent difficulty in all these cases is not in the liability and suability of the successor in a new suit. It is in the shifting from the personal liability of the first officer for threatened wrong or abuse of his office to the personal liability of his successor when there is no privity between them, as there is not if the officer sued is injuring or is threatening to injure the complainant without lawful official authority. There is no legal relation between the wrong committed or about to be committed by the one, and that by the other. ”