[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Massena 9-22-1969
as Ch. 9 of the 1969 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
When used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Includes all commodities, compounds, chattels, merchandise, watches,
clocks, jewelry and all other personal property, but shall not include used
household furniture or effects or real property.
Includes natural persons, partnerships and corporations.
Includes any public offer to sell personal property or real property
to the highest bidder or to the person offering to pay the highest price therefor,
and shall be without qualifications or reservations unless, at the time of
the offer of each article of parcel and before any bids are asked thereon,
a minimum price therefor is publicly stated.
[Added 9-4-2001 by L.L. No. 2-2001]
Shall not include any sale pursuant to the judgment, decree or order
of any court, or any sale made by an executor or administrator, or any sale
of unredeemed goods made by or in behalf of a licensed pawnbroker (or sales
by public officers in the manner prescribed by law, or sales pursuant to statute
to satisfy any lien upon the property sold, or resales pursuant to statute,
of property taken under a conditional sales contract).
No sale at auction of any goods, wares and chattels, as defined in this
chapter, shall be held within the Village of Massena, unless such sale be
directly conducted by a duly licensed public auctioneer.
No person shall act as a public auctioneer within the Village of Massena
unless such person be duly licensed as an auctioneer pursuant to law.
No public auctioneer and no person acting directly or indirectly through
a public auctioneer within the Village of Massena shall sell, dispose of or
offer for sale at public auction or cause or permit to be sold, disposed of
or offered for sale at public auction, any goods, wares and chattels, except
in compliance with the provisions of this chapter.
Any person intending to sell at public auction any goods, wares and
chattels, as defined in this chapter, within the Village of Massena shall
make application to the Mayor for a permit to hold such sale at public auction,
and if such permit be granted, the sale may be conducted as provided in this
chapter.
Such application shall be in writing and shall be verified, and must
be filed not more than 15 nor less than 10 days before the commencement of
any such sale. It shall set forth the name and address of the applicant, the
name and address of the public auctioneer, the street and number of the premises
in which it is proposed to conduct such sale, and the place or places within
said Village of Massena at which for two years next preceding the date fixed
for said sale the applicant has continuously conducted his business.
There shall be attached to the application a written sworn inventory
showing in detail the quality, quantity, kind or grade of the goods, wares
and chattels proposed to be sold, and stating that no items or articles belonging
to any other person other than the applicant are included in said inventory.
The affidavit to such inventory shall be made by the applicant if he be an
individual, or if the applicant be a partnership, by one of the partners,
or if such applicant be a corporation, by the president, secretary, treasurer
or general manager thereof.
[Amended 9-4-2001 by L.L. No. 2-2001]
The application shall be accompanied by a bond to the Village of Massena
in the penal sum of $5,000, conditioned that the applicant shall pay all losses
and damages which may lawfully be claimed against him on account of any material
misrepresenting of fact or belief, or any material suppressing of facts made
by him or caused by him in the conduct of such sale and public auction concerning
the goods, wares and chattels offered at such sale, or any losses or damages
which may grow out of a violation of any provisions of law relating to such
sale at public auction by such applicant. If such a bond is not executed as
surety by a bonding or insurance company licensed to do business in the State
of New York, it shall have as surety thereon two good and responsible residents
of the Village of Massena to be approved by the Village Attorney. Such bond
shall be for the benefit of any person who may sustain any such loss or damage
and any such person sustaining such loss or damage may bring suit or action
in any court of competent jurisdiction to recover such bond. Bond herein required
to be furnished shall be executed and be in full force for a period of one
year.
The Mayor, or his duly authorized representative, may examine goods,
wares and chattels specified in inventory. The Mayor, before issuing a permit,
shall have the right, either personally or by a person duly authorized in
writing by him, to examine the goods, wares and chattels specified in the
inventory to be offered for sale to determine whether said inventory correctly
sets forth the items to be sold.
No permit shall be issued to any person to conduct a sale at public
auction unless he shall have been, for a period of at least one year preceding
the date of such sale, continuously engaged in business in the Village of
Massena in dealing in the same kind of goods, wares and merchandise as are
to be offered for sale at such public auction.
[Amended 12-16-1975 by L.L. No. 7-1975; 9-4-2001
by L.L. No. 2-2001]
The license fee shall be $25 per year or any part thereof.
No permit shall be issued to conduct a sale at public auction for a
period longer than 15 consecutive days, Sundays and legal holidays excepted,
at any one place in the Village of Massena; and a period of at least 365 days
must have elapsed after the conclusion of any auction sale conducted either
before or after the enactment of this chapter before another permit shall
be issued to the same applicant or to any other person for a sale to be conducted
at the same place, except that the Mayor, in his discretion, may extend such
period of 15 days for an additional period of 15 days which shall run consecutively
from the date for the expiration of the first fifteen-day period, Sundays
and legal holidays excepted, which extension shall be endorsed in writing
on the original permit by the Mayor.
No permit shall be issued and it shall be unlawful for any public auctioneer
or other person to conduct a sale at public auction in the Village of Massena
between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
It shall be unlawful for any auctioneer or any other person through
such auctioneer to sell, dispose of or offer to sell or dispose of any goods,
wares and chattels, as defined in this chapter, at a sale at public auction
which have not been included and described in the inventory filed with the
application for a permit to hold such sale.
It shall be unlawful for any public auctioneer or any other person to
make a printed or oral statement concerning the goods, wares and chattels,
as defined in this chapter, which are the subject of such a sale at public
auction, if such statement is false in any particular or has a tendency to
mislead any person present or to misrepresent the quality, quantity, character,
condition, value or cost of any such goods, wares and chattels which are subject
of such sale at public auction.
It shall be unlawful for any public auctioneer or any other person to
act or to cause any other person to act as a bybidder or what is commonly
known as a "capper" or "booster" at any such sale at public auction or any
place where any such sale takes place or to offer or make any false bid or
to pretend to bid for or buy any article sold or offered for sale at any such
auction; or for anyone directly or indirectly in the employ of a public auctioneer
or the person to whom a permit has been issued under this chapter to bid for
or buy any such article.
The provisions of this chapter other than the prohibitions contained in §§ 96-13, 96-15 and 96-16 shall not apply to the regular conduct of sales at public auction by a duly licensed public auctioneer at his regularly maintained auction room in the Village of Massena, provided that such licensed public auctioneer has for a period of one year, immediately prior to the enactment of this chapter, continuously maintained in the Village of Massena an auction room or similar place for the regular conduct of auctions; provided, however, that such licensed public auctioneer shall not be permitted, without complying with the provisions of this chapter, to conduct sales in such regularly maintained auction room in excess of two days, which shall not be consecutive in each week.
For any violation of the provisions of this chapter or any other law
or ordinance relating to auctions and auctioneers, the Mayor may revoke any
license granted to a public auctioneer or any permit issued for the conduct
of any sale at public auction, and if it appears to such Mayor that any such
sale at public auction does in fact defraud or may defraud bidders thereat,
the permit to conduct such sale at public auction may in like manner be revoked,
notwithstanding that any such violation be not specifically shown or proven
to the Mayor.
If any provision of this chapter or the application thereof to any person
or circumstances is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the subdivision
and of the application of such subdivision to other persons and circumstances
shall not be affected thereby.
[Amended 9-4-2001 by L.L. No. 2-2001]
Any person violating any of the provisions contained in this chapter
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be liable
to a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for
not more than one year, or both. These penalties shall be in addition to any
other penalty provided by law. The Village may also seek injunctive
relief to prevent the continued violation of this chapter.
Owner of stock and proprietor must get a permit and license from the
Mayor and file an inventory taken at least three months prior to the auction
sale. Only in the event of death of proprietor (owner) will a thirty-day inventory
of stock before sale be accepted.
