N.Y. General Municipal Law § 50-g: Recording of notice of defect

§ 50-g. Recording of notice of defect. 1. Wherever any statute, city

charter or local law provides that no civil action shall be maintained

against a city for damages or injuries to person or property sustained

in consequence of any street, highway, bridge, culvert, sidewalk or

crosswalk being out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, or in

consequence of the existence of snow or ice thereon, unless it appear

that written notice of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed

condition, or of the existence of the snow or ice, was actually given to

the city or its specified officer or employee and there was a failure or

neglect within a reasonable time after the giving of such notice to

repair or remove the defect, danger or obstruction complained of, or to

cause the snow or ice to be removed, or the place otherwise made

reasonably safe, the city shall keep an indexed record, in a separate

book, of all written notices which it shall receive of the existence of

such defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, or of such

snow or ice, which record shall state the date of receipt of the notice,

the nature and location of the condition stated to exist, and the name

and address of the person from whom the notice is received. All such

written notices shall be indexed according to the location of the

alleged defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, or the

location of accumulated snow or ice.

2. Where the statute, charter or local law requires that the written

notice be given to a specified city officer or employee the record shall

be made and kept by the person so specified. Where the statute, charter

or local law requires that the written notice be given to any of several

specified city officers or employees, or omits to specify the officer or

employee to whom the written notice shall be given, the record shall be

made and kept by an officer or employee designated for that purpose by

the governing body of the city. In the absence of such designation the

record shall be made and kept by the commissioner of public works of the

city or, if there be no officer of that title, by an officer exercising

corresponding duties. The record of notices of defects shall be a public

record. The record of each notice shall be preserved for a period of

five years after the date it is received.

3. This section shall be applicable notwithstanding any inconsistent

provisions of law, general, special or local, or any limitation

contained in the provisions of any city charter.