N.Y. Railroad Law § 237: Abandonment of portion of route by elevated railroad

§ 237. Abandonment of portion of route by elevated railroad. Any

company operating an elevated railroad or railroads in any city of this

state for the transportation of passengers, mails or freight, and which,

prior to the twenty-ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-one,

shall have built and operated six-tenths of its route as set forth and

embodied in its articles of incorporation, may declare relinquished and

abandoned any portion of its said route, which it may deem no longer

necessary for the successful operation of its road and the convenience

of the public. Such declaration of abandonment to be valid shall be

adopted by the board of directors, under the seal of such company, and

shall be submitted to the stockholders thereof at a meeting called for

the purpose of taking the same into consideration. Due notice of the

time and place of holding said meeting and stating the object thereof

shall be given by the company to its stockholders by written or printed

notices addressed to each of the persons in whose name the capital stock

of the company stands on the books thereof, at the address of such

persons as stated on the books, or as known to the secretary of the

company, and delivered or mailed to such persons, or the legal

representatives of such persons, respectively, at least thirty days

before the time of holding the meeting of such company, and also by a

general notice published daily for at least four weeks in some newspaper

last designated for the publication of the session laws or of judicial

proceedings and legal notices in the county where the route of such

company is located; and at the said meeting of stockholders the

declaration of the said directors shall be considered and a vote by

ballot taken for the adoption or rejection of the same, each share

entitling the holder thereof to one vote, and said ballots shall be cast

in person or by proxy, and if two-thirds of all the votes of the

stockholders cast in person or by proxy at said meeting shall be for the

adoption of said declaration of abandonment, then that fact shall be

certified thereon by the secretary of the company under the seal

thereof, and the declaration so adopted shall be submitted for approval

to the commissioner of transportation, and if approved by him, such

approval shall be indorsed thereon, and the said declaration so

certified and indorsed shall be filed and recorded in the office of the

secretary of state, and from the time of such filing such portion of

said route designated in such declaration of such company shall be

deemed to be abandoned. A copy of such declaration of abandonment, duly

certified by the secretary of state under his official seal, shall be

presumptive evidence in all courts and places of the facts which it

recites, and of the regularity of the proceedings resulting in such

abandonment.