In order to compel a public officer or body to perform a particular act or correct an omission, a party may seek a court order in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus, one of the ancient writs in common law. This writ is an extraordinary remedy and if granted by the court, would compel "an officer or body to perform a specified ministerial act that is required by law to be performed".
In contrast, mandamus "does not lie to enforce a task or duty that is discretionary" as demonstrated by the decisions in Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos v New York City Police Dept., 152 AD3d 113, affd 32 NY3d 1091, cert denied, 139 S Ct 2651; and Matter of Meyer v Zucker, 185 AD3d 1265, lv denied 36 NY3d 904).
As the Appellate Division explained in Alliance, supra, "A ministerial act is best described as one that is mandated by some rule, law or other standard and typically involves a compulsory result". Further, mandamus is not available to compel an officer or body to reach a particular outcome with respect to a decision that turns on the exercise of discretion or judgment. In other words, as the Court of Appeals opined in Klostermann v Cuomo, 61 NY2d 525, mandamus will lie to compel a body to perform a mandated duty, not how that duty is to be performed.
As the Appellate Division noted in Matter of Willows Condominium Assn. v Town of Greenburgh, 153 AD3d 535, quoting Tango v Tulevech, 61 NY2d 34, "A discretionary act 'involves the exercise of reasoned judgment which could typically produce different acceptable results[,] whereas a ministerial act envisions direct adherence to a governing rule or standard with a compulsory result' ".
Other ancient common law writs include the writ of prohibition issued by a higher tribunal to a lower tribunal to "prohibit" the adjudication of a matter then pending before the lower tribunal on the grounds that the lower tribunal "lacked jurisdiction"; the writ of injunction - a judicial order preventing a public official from performing an act; the writ of "certiorari," compelling a lower court to send its record of a case to the higher tribunal for review by the higher tribunal; and the writ of “quo warranto” [by what authority].
The University of Southern California [USC] Gould School of Law has created an "English Medieval Legal Documents Database, A Compilation of Published Sources from 600 to 1535" which it has posted on the Internet. Click HERE to access this resource posted by USC.
New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules [CPLR], sets out the modern equivalents of the surviving ancient writs available in New York jurisprudence as noted in Matter of Brusco v Braun, 84 NY2d 674.