N.Y. Railroad Law § 225: Appraisal of damages and deposit of money as security

§ 225. Appraisal of damages and deposit of money as security. The

commissioners shall, within one hundred and ten days after their

organization, ascertain and determine the aggregate pecuniary damage

arising from the diminution in the value of the property bounded on that

portion of such street or streets, highway or highways, upon which it is

proposed to construct and operate such railroad to be caused by the

construction and operation thereof. For that purpose they shall view the

several parcels of real property so bounded, and shall appraise

separately the pecuniary damages arising from such diminution in value

of each parcel thereof, and for the purposes of such appraisal they

shall give notice of the time and place, when and where they will meet

to hear the owners, or persons interested in such real property, which

notice shall be published for at least ten days consecutively in at

least two newspapers in the county where such railroad is to be

constructed, and shall take such material testimony upon the probable

diminution in value of any or all such parcels to be so caused as may be

offered by or in behalf of any person or party interested therein, and

the aggregate sum of the amounts so appraised and determined by them

shall be the aggregate pecuniary damage required to be ascertained and

determined as above provided. No corporation which shall hereafter be

organized under this article shall enter upon any street, highway or

lane therein, until it shall first have deposited with some trust

company, to be designated by the mayor of the city within which it is

proposed to construct the railroad or any part thereof, and by the board

of supervisors, when the road does not lie wholly within a city, a sum

of money equal to the amount so ascertained and determined by the

commissioners to be the aggregate pecuniary damage to such property

within the city, or within the county outside of any city, or shall have

secured the payment of such amount by depositing with such trust company

negotiable securities, equivalent at their par and actual value to such

aggregate amount, and approved by the mayor of the city in which such

road is wholly or in part located, and by the county treasurer of the

county if the road is located wholly or in part outside of the limits of

such city. The court may accept in lieu of the deposit of money or

securities herein required the bond of the corporation, with two or more

sureties, to be approved by the court, to the effect that the

corporation before constructing or operating its railroad in front of

any premises, shall pay to the owner of the real property all the

damages sustained, or which will be sustained by him, as fixed and

determined by such commissioners, and the costs allowed, if any. Such

bond shall be in a sum double the amount of such damages, and the

sureties shall justify in the aggregate to an amount equal to the amount

of such bond. Such corporation shall also, at the same time, deposit

with such trust company or with the county treasurer, as the

commissioners may direct, the sum of five thousand dollars in cash, for

the payment of the expense of apportioning and distributing such fund.

Unless such moneys or securities shall be deposited by such corporation

within one year after it shall have obtained the consent of the local

authorities, and of the property owners, or the confirmation by the

appellate division of the supreme court, of the determination of three

commissioners in lieu thereof, and in the case of a corporation

organized prior to May eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two,

within one year after it shall have obtained the confirmation by the

appellate division of the supreme court of the report of three

commissioners in lieu of the consent of property owners, or within one

year after the commissioners appointed to ascertain and determine the

aggregate pecuniary damages as provided in this article shall have made

their report, then such corporation shall be deemed not to have accepted

the franchises granted. Where the commissioners shall fix and determine

different periods of time within which different sections of such

railroad shall be constructed and ready for operation, they shall

ascertain, determine, and report separately the aggregate pecuniary

damage to property bounded upon that portion of such street or streets

upon which each of such sections is located. Upon the deposit by the

corporation as above provided of moneys or securities equivalent to the

aggregate pecuniary damage to be sustained by any one of such sections,

or of any bond given in lieu thereof, it shall immediately be vested

with the right and privilege to construct its railroad through such

section.