No civil action shall be maintained against the Town or Town
Superintendent of Highways for damages or injuries to person or property
sustained by reason of any highway, bridge or culvert being defective,
out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed unless written notice
of such defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition of such
highway, bridge or culvert was actually given to the Town Clerk or
Town Superintendent of Highways and there was a failure or neglect
within reasonable time after the giving of such notice to repair or
remove the defect, danger or obstruction complained of; but no such
action shall be maintained for damages or injuries to person or property
sustained solely in consequence of the existence of snow or ice upon
any highway, bridge or culvert, unless written notice thereof, specifying
the particular place, was actually given to the Town Clerk or Town
Superintendent of Highways and there was a failure or neglect to cause
such snow or ice to be removed or to make the place otherwise reasonably
safe within a reasonable time after the receipt of such notice.
The Town Superintendent of Highways shall file in the office
of the Town Clerk within five days after the receipt thereof all written
notices received by him or her pursuant to this chapter and Subdivision
2 of § 65-a of the Town Law. The Town Clerk shall cause
written notices received by him or her pursuant to this chapter and
Subdivision 2 of § 65-a of the Town Law to be presented
to the Town Board within five days of the receipt thereof or at the
next succeeding Town Board meeting, whichever shall be sooner.
[Added at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions,
Art. III)]
The Town Clerk shall keep an indexed record, in a separate book,
of all written notices which he or she shall receive of the existence
of a defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition in or upon,
or of an accumulation of ice or snow upon any town highway, bridge,
culvert or sidewalk, which record shall state the date of receipt
of the notice, the nature and location of the condition stated to
exist, and the name and address of the person from whom the notice
is received. All such written notices shall be indexed according to
the location of the alleged defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed
condition, or the location of accumulated snow or ice. The record
of each notice shall be preserved for a period of five years after
the date it is received.
This chapter shall supersede in its application to the Town
of Elbridge Subdivisions 1 and 3 of § 65-a of the Town Law.