Notice of each claim for damages for wrong or injury to person
or property or for the death of a person founded upon tort shall be
given within ninety days after the claim arises by service thereof
in compliance with the provisions of section fifty-e of the general
municipal law.
No action or proceeding to recover or enforce any unliquidated
account or claim against the city shall be brought until such claim
shall have been filed with the city clerk or, in the case of a claim
founded upon tort, shall not be brought until notice of claim is served
as required by the provisions of section 50-e of the general municipal
law.
No civil action shall be maintained against the city for damage
or injuries to person or property sustained in consequence of any
street, part or portion of any street including the curb thereof and
any encumbrances thereon or attachments thereto, tree, bridge, viaduct,
underpass, culvert, parkway or park approach, sidewalk or crosswalk,
pedestrian walk or path, or traffic-control sign or signal, being
defective, out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, or in consequence
of the existence or accumulation of snow or ice upon any street, bridge,
viaduct, underpass, culvert, parkway or park approach, sidewalk or
crosswalk, pedestrian walk or path, unless previous to the occurrence
resulting in such damage or injuries written notice of such alleged
condition relating to the particular place and location was actually
given to the city clerk and there was a failure or neglect within
a reasonable time thereafter to remedy or correct the alleged condition
complained of.
When the city shall alter the recorded grade of any street or
alley, the owner of any property in front of whose premises the grade
is so altered may within one year thereafter present a claim to the
city clerk for damages caused by such alteration.
Whenever, any vessel, float or other craft shall be so placed
as to obstruct navigation or any sunken vessel or wreck shall obstruct
navigation of any navigable waters under the control of the city,
the commissioner of public works, parks and streets pursuant to such
ordinance, shall order the owner or person in charge thereof to remove
the same. In the event of failure to obey said order, said commissioner
shall cause the removal thereof and the expense of such removal shall
be a lien upon the vessel, float, craft or wreck so removed and may
be recovered by the city from the owner thereof by action.
The tax provided to be paid by section 25-14 of this charter,
the damages for any breach of the undertakings given pursuant to section
25-15 of this charter and the pecuniary penalties imposed by section
25-16 of this charter, may be sued for and recovered with costs of
suit in any court of record within this state by the director of the
treasury for the use of the department of fire.
After the expiration of ten months from the commencement of
collections on the general tax rolls, the city may recover by action
the amount of every tax on said rolls with the additions and interest
unpaid from the persons liable to pay the same. The judgment obtained
in such action, when docketed in the office of the clerk of Erie county,
shall have priority over any other lien or encumbrance upon or any
transfer of the property charged with the tax for which such action
was brought, provided that said judgment shall not have priority over
the encumbrance, lien or transfer of any purchaser or encumbrancer
of said property not a party to said action whose encumbrance, lien
or transfer shall have been filed or recorded before the commencement
of the action.
No proceeding shall be brought to review any assessment on the general rolls, or any of them, unless the petition for the writ is presented to a justice of the supreme court or at a special term of the supreme court in the judicial district in which the assessment complained of was made within thirty days after the final completion of said assessment rolls and the publication of the notice thereof as required by article 28. In any such proceeding the total assessment only can be reviewed. Assessments of special franchises may be reviewed as provided by the tax law.
Compliance with an ordinance in respect to the removal of poles,
cables, wires and other appliances for conducting electricity from
the streets or public grounds of the city may be enforced by mandamus
by any court of competent jurisdiction upon application of the city
as relator.
No person shall be incompetent to act as judge, justice, commissioner,
referee, juror or witness by reason of his being a resident or freeholder
of the city, in any action or proceeding to which the city is a party,
or in which it is interested.
It shall not be necessary for the city, in any action or proceeding
in which it is a party to give any bond, undertaking or security on
appeal, or in order to obtain a provisional remedy, or to take or
to prevent any other proceeding.
The director of the treasury is authorized, upon the passage
of a resolution by the common council, to file with the state superintendent
of insurance a notice of intention to claim against the proceeds of
any fire insurance policy upon real property (except one- and two-family
residential structures) located within the city, upon which there
are liens for special ad valorem levies, special assessments and municipal
charges and which have remained undischarged for a period of one year
or more.
The proceeds against which a claim has been filed shall be released
or returned to the insured, provided that the insured agrees in writing
with the city, upon such terms and conditions to guarantee performance
of the agreement as the corporation counsel may deem reasonable and
necessary, to restore the property damaged by a fire to at least the
same condition that it was in prior to the time that the city's lien
arose.
The powers granted by this article shall be in addition to,
and not in substitution for, all the powers, rights, privileges and
authority now existing in the city or hereafter conferred upon it
by any other provision of law.
