N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 5-458: § 5-458 Awards; deposits of; payment of, to persons not entitled thereto.

a. Whenever the owner, in whose favor any awards shall be made, shall be a minor or incompetent or absent from the city, and also in all cases where the name of the owner shall not be set forth or mentioned in the final decree, or where such owner, being named therein, cannot be found, or where there are adverse or conflicting claims to the money awarded as compensation, it shall be lawful for the comptroller to pay such awards made in the final decree into the supreme court, to be invested, secured, disposed of and paid out as such court shall direct. Such payment shall be as valid and effectual in all respects as if made to such owners according to their just rights, if they had been known and had all been present, of full age and competent.

b. In all cases, however, where any such award, which shall be made in the final decree in favor of any person whether named or not named in the final decree of the court, shall be paid to any person or persons whomsoever, when the same shall of right belong, and ought to have been paid to some other person or persons, it shall be lawful for the person or persons, to whom the same ought to have been paid, to sue for and recover the same, with lawful interest and costs of suit, from the person or persons, to whom the same shall have been paid, as so much money had and received to the use of the plaintiff or plaintiffs, by the person or persons, respectively, to whom the same shall have been so paid, and the final decree of the court, with proof of payment, shall be conclusive evidence of such payment in such suit.