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Every official or employee of the city, or of the counties included within the city, and every board or commission charged by law or by due authority with the custody of property of the city or the counties thereof, or with the direction of work done, or services performed, by or on behalf of the city or the counties therein, or the disbursement or receipt of moneys from the city or counties therein, and every person, official, board, commission or corporation receiving or disbursing moneys from the city or counties therein for public purposes, at such times, under such conditions, and in the manner directed to do so by the comptroller, shall furnish reports of facts relating to any or all of the property of the city, or the counties therein, or of such work or such services, or of the receipt or disbursement of moneys from the city or counties therein. Such officials and employees shall compile and maintain in their respective offices such system of statistical record as the comptroller may require appertaining to all matters referred to in this section.
A copy of any paper, record, book, document or map, filed in the office of the comptroller, or the minutes, records or proceedings, or any portion thereof, of any board or commission of which the comptroller is or may become a member, when certified by the comptroller, a deputy comptroller or any assistant deputy comptroller, to be a correct copy of the original, shall be admissible in evidence in any trial, investigation, hearing or proceeding in any court, or before any commissioner, board or tribunal, with the same force and effect as the original. Whenever a subpoena is served upon the comptroller or any member of a board or commission of which the comptroller is a member, or upon any officer or employee of the office of the comptroller, or upon any officer or employee of such board or commission, requiring the production upon any trial or hearing of an original paper, document, book, map, record, minutes or proceedings, the comptroller in his or her discretion, may furnish a copy certified as herein provided, unless such subpoena be accompanied by an order of the court or other tribunal before which the trial or hearing is had requiring the production of such original.
When used in this section and the two following sections, unless otherwise expressly stated:
1. The term "owner" shall mean only such parties or persons whose property abuts the street, the grade of which has been established or changed.
2. The term "lessee" shall mean only such parties or persons whose lease does not expire in less than three years from the date of completion and acceptance of the grading by the appropriate city agency.
3. The term "comptroller" shall mean the comptroller of the city of New York.
4. The term "special grade" shall mean only the following case: When a street has been graded to a grade which in the opinion of the board of estimate, has been occasioned by an improvement other than the normal and usual street improvement, the board of estimate, in its discretion, may issue a certificate to that effect, within sixty days after the grading shall have been completed and accepted by the appropriate city agency in charge of the work. Such certificate shall be transmitted to the comptroller, together with a plan and profile of the portion of the street affected by such special grade. Upon such plan and profile there shall be shown the level which, in the opinion of the board of estimate, constitutes a normal grade for the street, and the special grade to which the street has been graded. The comptroller, upon receipt of such certificate together with the accompanying plan and profile, shall be authorized and empowered to determine the damage to each owner and lessee thereof.
5. The term "street" includes street, avenue, road, alley, land, highway, boulevard, concourse, parkway, driveway, culvert, sidewalk, cross-walk, boardwalk and viaduct, and every class of public road, square and place, except marginal streets.
6. The term "real property" includes all lands and improvements, lands under water, water front property, the water of any lake, pond or stream, all easements and hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and every estate, interest and right, legal or equitable, in lands or water, and right, interest, privilege, easement and franchise relating to the same, including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise.
a. There shall be no liability for originally establishing a grade or for changing an established grade, except as provided in this section:
1. When an owner has built upon or otherwise improved his or her property prior to the original establishment of a grade by lawful authority, such owner and the lessee thereof shall be entitled to damages only to such buildings and improvements for the grading of the street in accordance with such established grade.
2. When an owner has built upon or otherwise improved his or her property in conformity with the grade of any street or avenue established by lawful authority nd such grade is changed after such buildings or improvements have been erected, such owner and the lessee thereof shall be entitled to damages only to such buildings and improvements for the change of grade.
3. When a street has been graded to a special grade as set forth in this section, the comptroller shall be empowered to determine the damages sustained by each owner or lessee of the land fronting the portion of the street affected by the special grade. The damages shall be for the departure of the grade of the street from the normal grade as shown on the plan and profile submitted by the board of estimate to the comptroller.
b. No award shall be made unless a claim in writing shall have been filed with the comptroller within ninety days after the grading shall have been completed.
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