N.Y. Highway Law § 270: Audit of damages without action

§ 270. Audit of damages without action. The town board of any town may

audit as a town charge, in the same manner as other town charges are

audited, any one claim not exceeding five hundred dollars, for damages

to person or property, heretofore or hereafter sustained by reason of

defective highways or bridges in the town, if in their judgment it be

for the interest of the town so to do; but no claim shall be so audited

unless it shall have been presented to the supervisor and town clerk of

the town within ninety days after it accrued, nor if any action thereon

shall be barred by the statute of limitations. The town board may also

audit any unpaid judgment heretofore or hereafter recovered against a

town superintendent for any such damages, if such town board shall be

satisfied that he acted in good faith, and the defect causing such

damage did not exist because of the negligence or misconduct of the

superintendent against whom such judgment shall have been recovered.