N.Y. Public Health Law § 4175: Records; unrecorded births and deaths

§ 4175. Records; unrecorded births and deaths. 1. If, at any time

after the birth, or within one year of the death, of any person within

the state, a certified copy of the official record of said birth or

death, with the information required to be registered by this article,

is necessary for legal, judicial, or other proper purposes, and, after

search by the commissioner or his or her representatives, it appears

that no such certificate of birth or death was made and filed as

provided by this article, then the commissioner shall immediately

require the physician, nurse practitioner, or nurse-midwife who, being

in attendance upon a birth, failed or neglected to file a certificate

thereof, or the funeral director, undertaker, or other person who,

having charge of the interment or removal of the body of a deceased

person, failed or neglected to file the certificate of death, if he or

she is living, to obtain and file at once with the local registrar such

certificate in as complete form as the lapse of time will permit.

2. With said delayed certificate shall be filed such statements

subscribed and affirmed by the persons making them as true under the

penalties of perjury and other evidence as may be required by the

commissioner.

3. If the physician, nurse practitioner, nurse-midwife, funeral

director, or undertaker responsible for the report is deceased or cannot

be located, then the person making application for the certified copy of

the record may file such certificate of birth or death together with

such statements subscribed and affirmed by the persons making them as

true under the penalties of perjury and other evidence as the

commissioner may require.

4. The commissioner shall file such certificate and issue a certified

copy thereof to said applicant without fee.

5. The delinquent physician, nurse practitioner, nurse-midwife,

funeral director, undertaker, or other person may, in the discretion of

the commissioner, be prosecuted as required by this article, without bar

from the statute of limitations, if he or she neglects or fails to file

promptly the certificate required by this section.