225. Appraisal of damages and deposit of money as security. The commissioners shall, within one hundred and ten days after their organization, ascertain and determine the aggregate pecuniary damage arising from the diminution in the value of the property bounded on that portion of such street or streets, highway or highways, upon which it is proposed to construct and operate such railroad to be caused by the construction and operation thereof. For that purpose they shall view the several parcels of real property so bounded, and shall appraise separately the pecuniary damages arising from such diminution in value of each parcel thereof, and for the purposes of such appraisal they shall give notice of the time and place, when and where they will meet to hear the owners, or persons interested in such real property, which notice shall be published for at least ten days consecutively in at least two newspapers in the county where such railroad is to be constructed, and shall take such material testimony upon the probable diminution in value of any or all such parcels to be so caused as may be offered by or in behalf of any person or party interested therein, and the aggregate sum of the amounts so appraised and determined by them shall be the aggregate pecuniary damage required to be ascertained and determined as above provided. No corporation which shall hereafter be organized under this article shall enter upon any street, highway or lane therein, until it shall first have deposited with some trust company, to be designated by the mayor of the city within which it is proposed to construct the railroad or any part thereof, and by the board of supervisors, when the road does not lie wholly within a city, a sum of money equal to the amount so ascertained and determined by the commissioners to be the aggregate pecuniary damage to such property within the city, or within the county outside of any city, or shall have secured the payment of such amount by depositing with such trust company negotiable securities, equivalent at their par and actual value to such aggregate amount, and approved by the mayor of the city in which such road is wholly or in part located, and by the county treasurer of the county if the road is located wholly or in part outside of the limits of such city. The court may accept in lieu of the deposit of money or securities herein required the bond of the corporation, with two or more sureties, to be approved by the court, to the effect that the corporation before constructing or operating its railroad in front of any premises, shall pay to the owner of the real property all the damages sustained, or which will be sustained by him, as fixed and determined by such commissioners, and the costs allowed, if any. Such bond shall be in a sum double the amount of such damages, and the sureties shall justify in the aggregate to an amount equal to the amount of such bond. Such corporation shall also, at the same time, deposit with such trust company or with the county treasurer, as the commissioners may direct, the sum of five thousand dollars in cash, for the payment of the expense of apportioning and distributing such fund. Unless such moneys or securities shall be deposited by such corporation within one year after it shall have obtained the consent of the local authorities, and of the property owners, or the confirmation by the appellate division of the supreme court, of the determination of three commissioners in lieu thereof, and in the case of a corporation organized prior to May eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, within one year after it shall have obtained the confirmation by the appellate division of the supreme court of the report of three commissioners in lieu of the consent of property owners, or within one year after the commissioners appointed to ascertain and determine the aggregate pecuniary damages as provided in this article shall have made their report, then such corporation shall be deemed not to have accepted the franchises granted. Where the commissioners shall fix and determine different periods of time within which different sections of such railroad shall be constructed and ready for operation, they shall ascertain, determine, and report separately the aggregate pecuniary damage to property bounded upon that portion of such street or streets upon which each of such sections is located. Upon the deposit by the corporation as above provided of moneys or securities equivalent to the aggregate pecuniary damage to be sustained by any one of such sections, or of any bond given in lieu thereof, it shall immediately be vested with the right and privilege to construct its railroad through such section.
Last modified: February 3, 2019