50-g. Recording of notice of defect. 1. Wherever any statute, city charter or local law provides that no civil action shall be maintained against a 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 appear that written notice of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, or of the existence of the snow or ice, was actually given to the city or its specified officer or employee and there was a failure or neglect within a reasonable time after the giving of such notice to repair or remove the defect, danger or obstruction complained of, or to cause the snow or ice to be removed, or the place otherwise made reasonably safe, the city shall keep an indexed record, in a separate book, of all written notices which it shall receive of the existence of such defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, or of such snow or ice, 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.
2. Where the statute, charter or local law requires that the written notice be given to a specified city officer or employee the record shall be made and kept by the person so specified. Where the statute, charter or local law requires that the written notice be given to any of several specified city officers or employees, or omits to specify the officer or employee to whom the written notice shall be given, the record shall be made and kept by an officer or employee designated for that purpose by the governing body of the city. In the absence of such designation the record shall be made and kept by the commissioner of public works of the city or, if there be no officer of that title, by an officer exercising corresponding duties. The record of notices of defects shall be a public record. The record of each notice shall be preserved for a period of five years after the date it is received.
3. This section shall be applicable notwithstanding any inconsistent provisions of law, general, special or local, or any limitation contained in the provisions of any city charter.
Last modified: February 3, 2019