§ 270. Audit of damages without action. The town board of any town may
audit as a town charge, in the same manner as other town charges are
audited, any one claim not exceeding five hundred dollars, for damages
to person or property, heretofore or hereafter sustained by reason of
defective highways or bridges in the town, if in their judgment it be
for the interest of the town so to do; but no claim shall be so audited
unless it shall have been presented to the supervisor and town clerk of
the town within ninety days after it accrued, nor if any action thereon
shall be barred by the statute of limitations. The town board may also
audit any unpaid judgment heretofore or hereafter recovered against a
town superintendent for any such damages, if such town board shall be
satisfied that he acted in good faith, and the defect causing such
damage did not exist because of the negligence or misconduct of the
superintendent against whom such judgment shall have been recovered.