N.Y. Rapid Transit Law § 56: Application to condemn property

§ 56. Application to condemn property. After such maps shall have

been filed in the office of the register or county clerk, the

corporation counsel, for and on behalf of the city, shall, and he may

from time to time, upon first giving the notice required by section

fifty-five of this chapter, apply to the supreme court at any special

term thereof, to be held in the judicial district in which such county

is situated, to have the compensation which should justly be made to the

respective owners of or persons interested in the property proposed to

be taken or extinguished by such proceedings ascertained and determined

by such court without a jury. Upon each such application he shall

present to the court a petition, signed by a majority of the members of

the board of transportation and verified in the manner prescribed by law

for the verification of pleadings, according to the practice of such

court, setting forth the action or determination theretofore taken or

had by such board with respect to the property to be acquired, and the

filing of such maps or plans and memoranda, and stating the amount or

valuation at which each parcel of the property to be acquired has been

assessed for purposes of taxation on the tax-rolls of the city for each

of the three years preceding the date of the petition, and praying that

the compensation which should justly be made to the respective owners of

or persons interested in the property proposed to be taken or

extinguished by such proceeding be ascertained and determined by such

court without a jury. Such petition shall contain a general description

of all the property to, or in or over or appurtenant to which any

property right is sought to be acquired, or extinguished, and of every

property right sought to be acquired by the city for public purposes,

each lot or parcel being more particularly described by a reference to

the number of such lot or parcel as given on such maps, and the property

right sought to be acquired, or extinguished, to or in or over or

appurtenant to each of such lots or parcels, shall be stated in such

petition.