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Upon the filing of the lis pendens in a capital project proceeding, the corporation counsel for and on behalf of the city shall promptly proceed to give notice of the city's intention to apply to the supreme court for permission to condemn and ascertain damages, as provided in subdivision (B) of section four hundred two of the eminent domain procedure law.
Upon the application to condemn, the corporation counsel shall present to the court a petition signed and verified by him or her, setting forth in addition to other requirements of the eminent domain procedure law, the following:
1. The order of the mayor authorizing the proceeding.
2. The amount of valuation at which each parcel of the real property to be acquired has been assessed for purposes of taxation on the city tax rolls for each of the three years preceding the date of the petition. Such assessed valuation, in case only part of an entire plot in a single ownership is to be acquired, shall be pro-rated according to the area of the part so to be acquired but shall include the valuation of all buildings encroaching upon or within the lines of the proposed improvement.
3. A prayer that the real property described therein be condemned by such court.
a. The proof of title to the real property to be acquired, where the same is undisputed, together with proof of liens or encumbrances, thereon, shall be submitted by the claimant to the corporation counsel, or to such assistant as the corporation counsel shall designate. The corporation counsel shall serve upon all parties or their attorneys, who have served upon him or her copies of their verified claims, a notice of the time and place at which the corporation counsel will receive such proof of title.
b. Where the title of the claimant is disputed it shall be the duty of the court to determine the ownership of such real property upon the proof submitted to the court during the trial of the proceeding. The court shall also have power to determine all questions of title incident to the trial of the proceeding.
A proceeding by the city to acquire title to real property for a public use or purpose by condemnation shall be deemed a special proceeding, in which testimony may be taken by deposition pursuant to the provisions of article thirty-one of the civil practice law and rules and subject to the provisions of this section. The pendency of such a proceeding shall constitute special circumstances which render it proper that the deposition of any person not an owner be taken pursuant to sections three thousand one hundred one and three thousand one hundred six of the civil practice law and rules. Such deposition may be taken upon any question or issue in the proceeding and for the purpose of obtaining testimony as to any sale or lease as described in subdivision a of section 5-314 of this subchapter at the instance of the city or of any owner or at the direction of the court at any time after the expiration of the date fixed for filing claims. Any owner desiring to obtain testimony by deposition shall give at least five days' notice or, if service is made through the post office, at least eight days' notice to the corporation counsel and to all other owners or their attorneys who have duly filed their verified claims. If the corporation counsel shall desire to obtain testimony by deposition he or she shall give like notice to all owners or their attorneys who have duly filed and served on the corporation counsel copies of their verified claims. For the purpose of any such examination before trial brought on by an owner and noticed for and held at any office of the corporation counsel in the borough in which the real property is situated or at such other place as the corporation counsel shall designate, the corporation counsel shall at the expense of the city provide proper stenographic service and shall furnish to the owner bringing on such examination a copy of the typewritten transcript of such examination, duly certified by the officer before whom the same was taken. In all other cases, the party bringing on such examination shall at his or her own cost and expense provide proper stenographic service and shall furnish to the corporation counsel two copies of the typewritten transcript of such examination duly certified by the officer before whom it was taken. The deposition of a witness need not be subscribed by such witness, if such subscription shall be waived by the parties appearing upon the witness' examination. The corporation counsel, at the office address subscribed by him or her upon the papers in the proceeding, shall from and after the date of his or her receipt thereof keep on file, available for inspection by all parties to the proceeding a certified copy of each deposition in the proceeding.
After all parties who have filed verified claims as provided in section 5-309 of this subchapter, have proved their title or have failed to do so after being notified by the corporation counsel of the time and place when and where such proof of title would be received by him or her, the corporation counsel shall serve upon all parties or their attorneys who have appeared in the proceeding a note of issue as provided in section five hundred six of the eminent domain procedure law. The clerk of the court must thereupon enter the proceeding upon the proper calendar according to the date of the entry of the order granting the application to condemn. When the note of issue has been served and filed, the proceeding must remain on the calendar until finally disposed of.
It shall be the duty of the justice trying any such proceeding, to view the real property to be thereby acquired in accordance with section five hundred ten of the eminent domain procedure law. Where title to real property being acquired in a proceeding shall have been vested in the city, and buildings or improvements situated thereon shall have been removed or destroyed by the city or pursuant to its authority prior to the trial of the proceeding, and whereby the justice trying the proceeding is deprived of a view of the buildings or improvements so removed or destroyed, the fact that the justice has not had a view thereof shall not preclude the court from receiving on the trial of the proceeding testimony and evidence, as to the damage sustained by the claimant by reason of the taking thereof, when offered on behalf of either the claimant or the city.
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