N.Y. Real Property Actions & Proceedings Law § 351: Evidence as to common lands in the city of New York

§ 351. Evidence as to common lands in the city of New York. In any

action or special proceeding involving a question as to the situs of any

lot of the common lands, so-called, in the city of New York, the court

may, upon the offer of any party, receive in evidence any evidence which

was received in the action heretofore prosecuted in the superior court

of the city of New York, by Russell D. Miner, and continued by the

personal representatives of the same Russell D. Miner, deceased, against

the city of New York, or in the action in such court between certain

heirs at law of the same Russell D. Miner, deceased, and Jacob Scholle

and others, and also the deposition of Isaac T. Ludlam, deceased,

verified before E. Henry Lacombe, as referee, upon the fourteenth day of

November, eighteen hundred seventy-eight, in an action in such court by

Hester Sherman and others, against Thomas Kane and others; provided that

the testimony of a witness shall not be admissible, under the provisions

of this section until the court is satisfied that such witness has

heretofore died; and provided further, that no provision of this section

shall give to any documentary evidence introduced in connection with any

former testimony any greater or different effect than may be due to it

by reason of the testimony relative thereto. Such evidence may be

introduced in any mode established by the practice of the courts for the

introduction of testimony given upon a former trial, by a witness who

has since died, or by reading from the printed cases on appeal,

heretofore filed in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the

city of New York.