L. 1916, ch. 287. Workhouses; parole. §§ 5,6. such institutions and commitments thereto. The term of imprisonment of persons so convicted and sentenced to reformatories shall be terminated by the parole commission in the manner prescribed in section five of this act and not otherwise. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to interfere with or prevent the commitment of any person in accordance with law to a state institution or to any other institution not under the jurisdiction of a department of correction in any of the said cities which was on May tenth, nineteen hundred and fifteen, or now is or may hereafter be authorized by law to receive persons convicted in the courts in any of said cities. (Amended by L. 1916, ch. 287, in effect Apr. 24, 1916.) § 5. Power of parole; investigations; records and statistics.-The parole commission shall have power to parole, conditionally release, discharge, retake or reimprison without reference to the committing magistrate or judge, except as provided in section three of this act, any inmate of any workhouse or reformatory under the jurisdiction of the department of correction in said city, committed thereto under an indeterminate sentence; and to parole, conditionally release, discharge, retake or reimprison any inmate of any penitentiary under the jurisdiction of a department of correction in said cities, committed thereto under an indeterminate sentence, provided the judge or court who made such commitment to such penitentiary or any successor thereof shall, upon recommendation of the parole commission created in pursuance of this act, approve in writing such parole, conditional release or discharge of such inmate. The said commission shall have power to make all necessary rules and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of the state, prescribing the conditions under which eligibility for parole may be determined and under which inmates may be paroled, conditionally released, discharged, retaken and reimprisoned. The said commission and each and every member thereof shall have full power to compel the attendance of witnesses; to administer oaths; to examine such persons as may be necessary or expedient; to investigate or cause to be investigated the record, health, ability and character previous to commitment and during imprisonment of each inmate committed under an indeterminate sentence to any penitentiary, workhouse, or reformatory of the department of correction in said city. It shall also be the duty of the said commission to facilitate the establishment of a uniform system of records, reports, statistics and memoranda treating of persons charged with or convicted of crimes and offenses punishable by imprisonment in any of the correctional institutions of a department of correction of said. city, and to make recommendations from time to time to the courts having criminal jurisdiction therein. (Amended by L. 1916, ch. 287, in effect Apr. 24, 1916.) 6. Abolition of existing parole boards or agents; transfers; peace officers. The appointment and qualification of members of the parole com 8 40. Equal rights. L. 1916, ch. 287. mission in any of the cities as aforesaid shall abolish any existing board of parole, body or agent authorized to regulate the parole, discharge or reimprisonment of any person or persons committed under an indeterminate sentence to any institution under the jurisdiction of the department of correction of said city, and any board of parole, body or agent so abolished shall immediately deliver to such parole commission in said city, all papers, documents, records and other memoranda in its possession relating to inmates theretofore so committed, and jurisdiction over such inmates shall thereupon vest in such parole commission in accordance with the provisions of this act. All persons in the employ of any such board of parole, body or agent as aforesaid, on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifteen, in a position appearing in the competitive class of the civil service classification of the municipal civil service commission of said city or of the state civil service commission and still so employed at the time of the abolishment of such board of parole, body or agent as provided in this act, shall be transferred to and employed at the same rate of compensation by the superseding parole commission, and such persons shall perform such duties as directed by said parole commission. Upon the creation in any of said cities of a parole commission in pursuance of this act, the parole officers, superintendent, overseers, wardens, deputy wardens, instructors, head keepers, keepers, engineers, firemen, pilots, foremen of stables and drivers of the department of correction in said city shall be and become peace officers within the provisions of section one hundred and fifty-four of the code of criminal procedure. (Amended by L. 1916, ch. 287, in effect Apr. 24, 1916.) CIVIL RIGHTS LAW. (L. 1909, ch. 14.) § 40. Equal rights in places of public accommodation or amusement. Exclusion of dramatic critics from theatres; when such exclusion not prohibited by Civil Rights Act.-At the common law a theatre, while affected by a public interest which justified licensing under the police power or for the purpose of revenue, is in no sense public property or a public enterprise. The proprietor does not derive from the state the franchise to initiate and conduct it. His right to and control of it is the same as that of any private citizen in his property and affairs, and he has the right to decide who shall be admitted or excluded. The rights conferred by the Civil Rights Act are expressly made subject to any conditions or limitations established by law which are applicable alike to all citizens. That act forbade that membership of any particular class of citizens should justify or permit exclusion from the enjoyment of the facilities or accommodations designated by it. Except as thus restricted, the rights of proprietors of theatres remained as at common law. Nor do the changes in the language of the act made by the amendment thereto (L. 1913, ch. 265) remove it from the effect of the decision of this court in Grannan v. Westchester Racing Association (153 N. Y. 449), holding that the legislature did not intend to confer upon every person all the rights, advantages and privileges in places of amusement or accommodation which might be enjoyed by another. Any discrimination not based on race, 1 J L. 1916, ch. 287. Equal rights. $ 40. creed or color does not fall within the condemnation of the statute. Woollcott v. Shubert (1916), 217 N. Y. 212, affg. 169 App. Div. 610, 154 N. Y. Supp. 643. Where a person is refused admittance to a theatre, his sole right to redress rests upon sections 40 and 41 of the Civil Rights Law, for at common law there is no right to admittance to a theatre against the will of the owner. Woollcott v. Shubert (1915), 169 App. Div. 194, 154 N. Y. Supp. 643, revg., 90 Misc. 474, 154 N. Y. Supp. 754. Where the plaintiff, a dramatic critic, was excluded from the defendant's theatre upon the ground that his criticisms were offensive, he cannot maintain a suit in equity to enjoin the defendant from continuing to refuse admittance. The plaintiff is not entitled to relief in equity upon the ground that the defendant's acts will lead to a multiplicity of suits, where no suit whatever to recover the statutory penalty has been brought, nor is he entitled to equitable relief upon the theory that the remedy provided by the statute is inadequate, that not being the case. Woollcott v. Shubert (1915), 169 App. Div. 194, 154 N. Y. Supp. 643, revg., 90 Misc. 474, 154 N. Y. Supp. 754; affd 217 N. Y. 212. Dancing pavilion for social amusement; refusal to admit negroes; failure to prove tender of entrance fee.-The proper management of a dancing pavilion maintained as part of a recreation or picnic ground, a charge being made for the privilege of dancing, involves the admission of persons who are mutually congenial socially, and it is not a "place of public accommodation, resort or amusement" within the meaning of sections 40 and 41 of the Civil Rights Law forbidding the exclusion of any person on account of race, creed or color. Hence, the manager of such dancing pavilion is not liable for the penalty prescribed by the Civil Rights Law for refusing admittance to negroes. It seems, however, that it would be a violation of said statute to exclude any person from such pavilion if the entertainment furnished consisted of a spectacle of public dancing in which those admitted were not expected to participate personally. Moreover, as the statute is highly penal, there can be no recovery of the penalty therein prescribed without proof that the parties seeking admission to a place of public amusement actually tendered the entrance fee. Johnson v. Auburn & Syracuse Electric R. R. Co. (1915), 169 App. Div. 864, 156 N. Y. Supp. 93. §§ 9, 11. Classified city service. L. 1916, ch. 357. CIVIL SERVICE LAW. (L. 1909, ch. 15.) $9. Unclassified service; classified service. Notice terminating period of employment at end of probationary period; ratification after probationary period.-Under the Civil Service Law, the rules of the municipal civil service commission of the city of New York and the Greater New York charter, a notice by a committee of the board of education terminating the employment of an accountant at the end of his probationary period is effective to terminate his connection with the department, although not ratified by the board until after the expiration of the probationary period. Goldschmidt v. Board of Education (1915), 170 App. Div. 395, 155 N. Y. Supp. 181. § 11. The classified city service.-The mayor of each city in this state shall appoint and employ suitable persons to prescribe, amend and enforce rules for the classification of the offices, places and employments in the classified service of said city, and for appointments and promotions therein and examinations therefor; and for the registration and selection of laborers for employment therein, not inconsistent with the constitution and the provisions of this chapter, and shall amend the same from time to time. Such persons shall be municipal civil service commissioners and shall constitute the municipal civil service commission of such city. All appointments or designations of municipal civil service commissioners shall be made in such manner that not more than two-thirds of such commissioners in any city shall at any time be adherents of the same political party. Such rules herein prescribed and established, and all regulations now existing for appointment and promotion in the civil service of said city, and any subsequent modification thereof, whether prescribed under the authority of a general law or of any special or local law, shall be valid and take or continue in effect only upon the approval of the mayor of the city and of the state civil service commission. The authority by this section conferred shall not be so exercised as to take from any policeman or fireman any right or benefit conferred by law, or existing under any lawful regulation of the department in which he serves. All examinations herein authorized shall be public, and all rules shall be published, and, with all the proceedings and papers connected with said examinations, shall be at all times subject to the inspection of said state commission and its agents; and said commission shall set forth in its report the character and practical effects of such examinations, together with its views as to the improvement and extension of the same, and also copies of all rules made under the authority hereby conferred. Subject to the provisions of this chapter and of said rules, the municipal commission of any city shall make regulations for and have control of examinations and registrations for the service of such city, and shall supervise and preserve the records of the L. 1916, ch. 357. Classified city service. § 11. same. In case for any reason, the mayor of any city within sixty days after he has the power to appoint, fails to appoint such municipal commissioners, the state commission shall appoint them to hold office until the expiration of the term of the mayor then in office and until their successors are appointed and qualify. It shall be the duty of such persons to prepare and to procure the approval of the rules herein provided for, and, if they fail to do so within sixty days after their appointment, the state commission shall forthwith make said rules. It shall be the duty of such persons to make reports from time to time to the state commission, whenever said commission may request, of the manner in which this law, and the rules and regulations thereunder, have been and are administered, and the results of their administration in such city, and of such other matters as said commission may require, and annually on or before the fifteenth day of January, to make such a report to said commission; and it shall be the duty of said state commission in its annual report to set out either these reports, or a sufficient abstract or summary thereof, to give full and clear information as to their contents. A copy of the roster of the classified civil service of such city shall be transmitted to the state commission with the annual report aforesaid, and shall be filed in the office of said commission as a public record. The municipal commission of each city, for the purpose of investigating the enforcement and effect of the civil service law and the rules and regulations prescribed thereunder in the service of such city, shall have the same powers that are granted to the state commission by the third and fourth subdivisions of section six of this act. The mayor may at any time remove any municipal civil service commissioner appointed by him. Said state commission may also, by unanimous vote of the three commissioners, with the written approval of the governor, remove any municipal civil service commissioner appointed or employed under the authority of this section, for incompetency, inefficiency, neglect of duty or violation of the provisions of this chapter, or of the rules and regulations in force thereunder, or of any of them, specifying in writing the particulars of the incompetency, inefficiency, neglect of duty or violation charged, and filing the same as a public document in the office of the city clerk, or if there be no city clerk, in the office of the clerk of the board of aldermen, and a certified transcript thereof in the office of the state civil service commission, first giving such commissioner an opportunity to make a personal explanation in self-defense. Whenever a municipal civil service commissioner has been removed by the unanimous vote of the three state commissioners, with the written approval of the governor, or whenever any municipal commissioner shall resign or be removed by the mayor pending an investigation by the state commission of the administration of the civil service of the city in which such person is a municipal commissioner, or whenever any municipal commissioner shall resign or be removed by the mayor pending a hearing by the state commission of charges preferred against such municipal commissioner, the |