No action or proceeding to recover or enforce any claim, debt
or demand against the city shall be brought until the expiration of
ninety (90) days after the claim, debt or demand shall have been presented
to the Common Council for audit. All actions brought against the city
upon any contract liability, express or implied, must be commenced
within one (1) year from the time that the cause of action accrued,
or if for injuries to the person or property, caused by negligence,
within one (1) year from the time of receiving the injuries, and in
other cases within six (6) months after the refusal of the Common
Council to allow the claim. The place of trial of all actions or proceedings
against the city, or any of its officers, boards or departments, shall
be the County of Orange.
No civil action shall be maintained against the city for damages
or injuries to person or property sustained in consequence of any
street, highway, bridge, culvert, sidewalk or crosswalk being out
of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, or in consequence of the
existence of snow or ice thereon, unless it appears that prior to
the occurrence resulting in such damages or injuries written notice
of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, or of
the existence of the snow or ice, was filed in the office of the Director
of Public Works of the city, relating to the particular place, and
that there was a failure or neglect to remedy such condition within
a reasonable time after the filing of such notice. The city shall
not be liable in a civil action for damages or injuries to person
or property, or invasion of personal or property rights, of any name
or nature whatsoever, whether casual or continuing, arising at law
or in equity, alleged to have been caused or sustained, in whole or
in part, by or because of any omission of duty, wrongful act, fault,
neglect, misfeasance or negligence on the part of the city, or any
of its departments, agencies, boards or offices, unless a claim therefor
in writing, verified by the oath of the claimant containing a statement
of the place of residence of the claimant, by street and number, if
any, otherwise such facts as will disclose such place of residence
with reasonable certainty, and describing the time when, the particular
place where and the circumstances under which the damages or injuries
were sustained, the cause thereof and, so far as then practicable,
the nature and extent thereof, or a copy of such claim, shall within
ninety (90) days after the happening of the accident or injury or
the occurrence of the act, omission, fault or neglect out of which
or on account of which the claim arose, be presented to the Common
Council and served upon the Mayor or City Clerk-Treasurer, and notice
of intention to commence an action thereon be served upon the Corporation
Counsel, nor unless an action shall be commenced thereon within one
(1) year after the happening of such accident or injury or the occurrence
of such act, omission, fault or neglect; but no action shall be commenced
to recover upon or enforce any such claim against the city until the
expiration of three (3) months after the service of said notice upon
the Corporation Counsel. Nothing herein contained, however, shall
be held to revive any claim or cause of action now barred by any existing
requirement or statute of limitations, nor to waive any existing limitation
which is applicable to any claim or cause of action against the city.
No person shall be disqualified from acting as Judge or juror,
by reason of being an inhabitant or freeholder in the City of Port
Jervis, in any action or proceeding in which the city is a party or
is interested.
Civil actions to recover any penalties or forfeitures incurred
under this Charter shall be brought in the corporate name of said
city as provided by law.
