[HISTORY: Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Hornell as
Ch. 6 of the 1970 Municipal Code. Sections 100-5 and 100-16 amended at time
of adoption of Code; see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II. Other amendments
noted where applicable.]
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words, terms and phrases
shall have the meanings herein ascribed to them:
All commodities, compounds, chattels, merchandise, watches, clocks,
jewelry and other personal property, but shall not include used household
furniture and real property.
Shall not include any sale pursuant to the judgment, decree or order
of any court or any sale made by any 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 auctioneer and no person acting directly or indirectly through an
auctioneer within the city 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.
No sale at public auction of any goods, wares and chattels, as defined
in this chapter, shall be held within the city unless such sale is directly
conducted by a duly licensed auctioneer.
No person shall act as an auctioneer within the city unless such person
is duly licensed as an auctioneer pursuant to law.
[Amended 3-28-1988[1]]
The fee for a license required by this chapter shall be as provided in Chapter 142, Fees, for each day such auction sale shall be held within the city, to be paid each day in advance.
Any person intending to sell at public auction any goods, wares and
chattels, as defined in this chapter, within the city shall make applications
to the City Clerk for a permit to hold such sale at public auction; and if
such permit is granted, the sale may be conducted as provided in this chapter.
A.
The application for a permit to hold or conduct a public
auction shall be in writing and shall be verified and must be filed not more
than 15 days nor less than 10 days before the commencement of such sale. Such
application shall contain the following information:
(1)
The name and address of the applicant.
(2)
The name and address of the auctioneer.
(3)
The street and number of the premises in which it is
proposed to conduct such sale.
(4)
The place or places at which, for the two years next
preceding the date fixed for said sale, the applicant has continuously conducted
his business.
B.
There shall be attached to the application for a permit
to conduct a public auction a written verified 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 is an individual, or
if the applicant is a partnership, by one of the partners, or if such applicant
is a corporation, by the president, secretary, treasurer or general manager
thereof.
The City Clerk, before issuing a permit to conduct an auction, 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.[1]
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 two years preceding
the date of such sale continuously engaged in business in the city in dealing
in the same kinds of goods, wares and chattels as are to be offered for sale
at such public auction.
No permit shall be issued to conduct a sale at public auction for a
longer period than 15 consecutive days, Sundays and legal holidays excepted,
at any one place in the city, and a period of at least one year must have
elapsed after the conclusion of such auction sale 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, which shall run consecutively from the date of the expiration
of the first fifteen-day period, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, which
extension shall be endorsed, in writing, on the original permit.
The Mayor may revoke any permit or license granted to an auctioneer
or any permit issued for the conduct of any sale at public auction for a violation
of the provisions of this chapter or for a violation of any law or ordinance
relating to auctions and auctioneers. If it appears to the Mayor that any
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.
No permit shall be issued to conduct a public auction and it shall be
unlawful for any auctioneer or other person to conduct a sale at public auction
in the city between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
It shall be unlawful for any auctioneer or any other person, through
such auctioneer or otherwise, 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 or license to hold such sale.
It shall be unlawful for any 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 a sale at public auction if such
statement is false in any particular or if such statement 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 the
subject of such sale at public auction.
It shall be unlawful for any auctioneer or any other person to act or
to cause any other person to act as a by-bidder or what is commonly known
as a "capper" or "booster" at any sale at public auction or any place where
any such sale shall take place or to offer or to make any false bid or to
pretend to bid for or buy any article sold or offered for sale at any such
public auction or for anyone, directly or indirectly, in the employ of an
auctioneer or the person to whom a permit to conduct a public auction has
been issued under this chapter to bid for or buy any such article so offered
or exposed for sale.
