New York General Construction Law Article 2 - MEANING OF TERMS

• 10 - Acknowledge and Acknowledgment.
  The terms acknowledge and acknowledgment, when used with reference to the execution of an instrument or writing other than a deed of real property, include...
• 11 - Acknowledgment or Proof of Instrument.
  When the execution of any instrument or writing is authorized or required by law to be acknowledged, or to be proven so as to entitle...
• 11-a - Acquisition.
  The term "acquisition" means the act of acquiring any title to, right or interest in, real property through the exercise of the power of eminent...
• 11-b - Appropriation.
  The term "appropriation" when used in reference to the acquiring of any title to, right or interest in real property through the exercise of the...
• 12 - Affidavit.
  When an affidavit is authorized or required it may be sworn to before any officer authorized by law to take the acknowledgment of deeds in...
• 13 - Adjournment of Meeting.
  Any meeting referred to in section forty-one of this chapter may be adjourned by a less number than a quorum.
• 13-a - Armed Forces of the United States.
  "Armed forces of the United States" means the army, navy, marine corps, air force and coast guard, including all components thereof, and the national guard...
• 13-b - Board of Supervisors.
  The term "board of supervisors" means the elective governing body of a county, by whatever name designated.
• 14 - Bond and Undertaking.
  A provision of law authorizing or requiring a bond to be given shall be deemed to have been complied with by the execution of an...
• 15 - Chattels.
  The term chattels includes goods and chattels; and, where the term appears in any statute or rule pertaining to an action to recover the same,...
• 16 - Choose.
  The term choose includes elect and appoint.
• 16-a - Civil Action.
  The term "civil action" means any action except when prosecuted in the name of the people of the state of New York, as plaintiffs against...
• 16-b - Condemnation.
  The term "condemnation" when used in reference to the acquiring of any title to, right or interest in, real property through the exercise of the...
• 17 - Criminal Code.
  The term criminal code means the code of criminal procedure.
• 18 - Consolidated Laws.
  The term Consolidated Laws shall mean the compilation of the statutes prepared by the board of statutory consolidation and the amendments thereof.
• 18-a - Criminal Action.
  A "criminal action" is prosecuted in the name of the people of the state of New York, as plaintiffs, against a party charged with crime.
• 19 - Day, Calendar.
  A calendar day includes the time from midnight to midnight. Sunday or any day of the week specifically mentioned means a calendar day.
• 20 - Day, Computation.
  A number of days specified as a period from a certain day within which or after or before which an act is authorized or required...
• 20-a - Distinct Parcel.
  "Distinct parcel" of real property is a part of the property which is or may be set off by boundary lines as distinguished from an...
• 22 - Gender.
  Whenever words of the masculine or feminine gender appear in any law, rule or regulation, unless the sense of the sentence indicates otherwise, they shall...
• 23 - Heretofore and Hereafter.
  Each of the terms, heretofore, and hereafter, in any provision of a statute, relates to the time such provision takes effect.
• 24 - Public Holidays; Half-Holidays.
  The term public holiday includes the following days in each year: the first day of January, known as New Year's day; the third Monday of...
• 24-a - Closing of Banking Organizations on Saturday; Sunday, Public Holiday or Saturday Afternoon Banking Transactions; Emergency Bank Holidays.
  1. Any banking organization lawfully doing business within the state of New York may be closed on any one or more Saturdays upon the adoption...
• 25 - Public Holiday, Saturday or Sunday in Contractual Obligations; Extension of Time Where Performance of Act Authorized or Required by Contract is Due on
  Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. 1. Where a contract by its terms authorizes or requires the payment of money or the performance of a condition...
• 25-a - Public Holiday, Saturday or Sunday in Statutes; Extension of Time Where Performance of Act is Due on Saturday, Sunday or Public Holiday.
  1. When any period of time, computed from a certain day, within which or after which or before which an act is authorized or required...
• 25-b - Injury to Property.
  "Injury to property" is an actionable act, whereby the estate of another is lessened, other than a personal injury, or the breach of a contract.
• 25-c - Investment in Bond and Mortgage or Note and Mortgage.
  The term bond and mortgage or the term note and mortgage as heretofore or hereafter used in any statute which prescribes or authorizes investment therein,...
• 26 - Judge.
  The term "judge" includes every judicial officer authorized, alone or with others, to hold or preside over a court of record. It also includes a...
• 26-a - Judgment Creditor.
  "Judgment creditor" signifies the person who is entitled to collect or otherwise enforce, in his own right, a judgment for a sum of money, or...
• 26-b - Just Compensation As Including Loss of Mortgage Financing.
  Notwithstanding any inconsistent provisions of law, whenever property is taken pursuant to the power of eminent domain (whether denominated condemnation, appropriation or otherwise) just compensation...
• 27 - Last, Preceding, Next and Following.
  A reference to the last or preceding section, or other provision of a statute, means the section or other division immediately preceding, and a reference...
• 28 - Lunatic, Mentally Ill Person, Lunacy and Mental Illness.
  The terms lunatic, mentally ill person, lunacy and mental illness include every kind of unsoundness of mind except idiocy or mental retardation.
• 28-a - Mandate.
  "Mandate" includes a writ, process or other written direction, issued pursuant to law, out of a court, or made pursuant to law, by a court,...
• 28-b - Magistrate.
  A magistrate is a judge of any court of this state.
• 28-c - Down's Syndrome.
  1. On and after the effective date of this section, the term "mongolism" or "mongoloid" used as a synonym for the genetic disorder known as...
• 29 - Men.
  The term men includes boys.
• 30 - Month, Computation.
  A number of months after or before a certain day shall be computed by counting such number of calendar months from such day, exclusive of...
• 31 - Month in Statute, Contract and Public or Private Instrument.
  In a statute, contract or public or private instrument, unless otherwise provided in such contract or instrument or by law, the term month means a...
• 32 - Municipal Officers.
  A reference to several officers of a municipal corporation holding the same office, or to a board of such officers, shall be deemed to refer...
• 33 - Notice.
  When a notice is required to be given to a board or body, service of such notice upon the clerk or chairman thereof shall be
• 33-a - Notify.
  "Notify" is used with respect to procuring the attendance of a juror, is equivalent to the word "summon" as used in the like connection, in...
• 34 - Now.
  The term now in any provision of a statute referring to other laws in force, or to persons in office, or to any facts or...
• 35 - Number, Singular and Plural.
  Words in the singular number include the plural, and in the plural number include the singular.
• 36 - Oath, Affidavit and Swear.
  The terms oath and affidavit include every mode authorized by law of attesting the truth of that which is stated. The term swear includes every...
• 37 - Person.
  The term person includes a corporation and a joint-stock association. When used to designate a party whose property may be the subject of any offense,...
• 37-a - Personal Injury.
  "Personal injury" includes libel, slander and malicious prosecution; also an assault, battery, false imprisonment, or other actionable injury to the person either of the plaintiff,...
• 37-b - Population.
  1. The term population when used in relation to this state, or a municipality or other subdivision thereof, or a portion of such a municipality...
• 38 - Property.
  The term property includes real and personal property.
• 39 - Property, Personal.
  The term personal property includes chattels, money, things in action, and all written instruments themselves, as distinguished from the rights or interests to which they...
• 40 - Property, Real.
  The term real property includes real estate, lands, tenements and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal.
• 41 - Quorum and Majority.
  Whenever three or more public officers are given any power or authority, or three or more persons are charged with any public duty to be...
• 41-a - Recital in Record of Meeting As Evidence.
  A recital in any order, resolution or other record of any proceeding of a meeting referred to in section forty-one of this chapter that such...
• 42 - Register of County.
  Any act done in pursuance of law by the register of a county shall be deemed to be a compliance with any provision of law...
• 43 - Seal of Court, Public Officer or Corporation.
  A seal of a court, public officer or corporation may be impressed directly upon the instrument or writing to be sealed, or upon wafer, wax...
• 44 - Seal, Private.
  The private seal of a person, other than a corporation, to any instrument or writing shall consist of a wafer, wax or other similar adhesive...
• 44-a - Seal on Written Instrument.
  Except as otherwise expressly provided by statute, the presence or absence of a seal upon a written instrument executed after August thirty-first, nineteen hundred forty-one...
• 45 - Seal, Private As Corporate Seal.
  An instrument or writing duly executed, in the corporate name of a corporation, which shall not have adopted a corporate seal, by the proper officers...
• 46 - Signature.
  The term signature includes any memorandum, mark or sign, written, printed, stamped, photographed, engraved or otherwise placed upon any instrument or writing with intent to...
• 47 - State.
  The term state, when used generally to include every state of the United States, includes also every territory of the United States and the District...
• 47-a - Superintendent of Schools.
  The term "superintendent of schools" shall mean the chief school officer of a school district other than the city school district of the city of...
• 48 - Tense, Present.
  Words in the present tense include the future.
• 49 - Territory.
  The term territory when used generally to include every territory of the United States, includes also the District of Columbia.
• 50 - Time, Computation.
  Time shall continue to be computed in this state according to the Gregorian or new style. The first day of each year after the year...
• 51 - Time, Night.
  Night time includes the time from sunset to sunrise.
• 52 - Time, Standard.
  1. The standard time throughout this state is that of the seventy-fifth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, except as hereinafter provided, and all courts...
• 53 - Time, Use of Standard.
  Any act required by or in pursuance of law to be performed at or within a prescribed time, shall be performed according to the standard
• 53-a - Trial Juror; Trial Jury.
  The terms "trial juror" and "trial jury", are respectively equivalent to the terms "petit juror", and "petit jury", as used in the constitution and laws...
• 54 - Village.
  The term village means an incorporated village.
• 55 - Women.
  The term women includes girls.
• 56 - Writing and Written.
  The terms writing and written include every legible representation of letters upon a material substance, except when applied to the signature of an instrument.
• 57 - Year, Common and Leap.
  For the purpose of computing and reckoning the days of the year in the same regular course in the future, every year, the number of...
• 58 - Year in Statute, Contract and Public or Private Instrument.
  The term year in a statute, contract, or any public or private instrument, means three hundred and sixty-five days, but the added day of a...
• 59 - Bastard; Illegitimate Child.
  The term "bastard" or "illegitimate child" in a statute means a child born out of wedlock. Hereafter in any local law, ordinance or resolution or...
• 60 - Newspapers.
  a. In any case in which notice of any fact is required by law to be published or advertised in a newspaper, the term "newspaper"...
• 61 - Date for Determining Last Completed Assessment Rolls.
  In computing the amount which may be raised by tax on real estate by a county, city, village or school district within the limitation prescribed...
• 62 - Size of Type.
  Whenever a requirement of law relating to size of type is stated in point size, the type size requirement shall be deemed met if the...

Last modified: February 3, 2019