§ 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.