entered upon the assessment-roll, and it shall be the duty of said attorney to report all cases dismissed on account of the inability of the person to pay the tax to the commissioners of taxes and assessments, annually on the thirty-first day of December in each year; and said commissioners are hereby authorized to strike the names of all such persons from the assessment-rolls for the suc ceeding year. [As amended by Laws 1892, chap. 58.]

Laws 1867, chap. 334, § 5. See McMahon v. Jones, 1 How. Pr. (N. S.) 270 (1885).

§ 863. Any tax duly imposed for personal property upon any person or corporation in the city and county of New York, and which shall remain unpaid and in arrears on the fifteenth day of January succeeding the year in which it shall have been imposed, may be recovered, with interest and costs, by the receiver of taxes of said city, in an action in any court of record in this State.

Laws 1867, chap. 334, § 11.

An action in personam may be maintained under this section by the receiver of taxes in said city for the recovery of taxes imposed upon a stockholder of a national bank located in said city, in a case where such stockholder was not a resident of the city and county of New York when the taxes were imposed. McLean v. Myers, 134 N. Y. 480; S. C., 48 N. Y. St. Repr. 232 (1892). It is not a condition precedent to such action that a warrant for distress and sale be issued by such receiver as provided in section 863, and returned unsatisfied. Id.

This section does not repeal or modify section 863, above. McLean v. Manhattan Medicine Co., 22 J. & S. 371 (1887). For opinion at Special Term, see S. C., 3 N. Y. St. Repr. 550 (1886).

§ 915. All taxes and all assessments for city improvements, and all regular Croton water rents, and the interest and charges thereon, which may be laid, or have heretofore been laid, upon any real estate in the city and county of New York, shall be and continue to be, until paid, a lien thereon, and shall be preferred in payment to all other charges.

See Laws 1871, chap. 381.

*

§ 918. Interest shall hereafter be charged and collected at the rate of seven per cent. per annum on all arrears of taxes and assessments returned to the clerk of arrears from the time they become due until the date of payment, or in case a sale has taken place as provided in section nine hundred and twenty-six, until the date of the certificate mentioned in said section, and on the regular rents" and charges for Croton water, from the time the taxes became due, to which they may be added as required by

66

section nine hundred and twenty-three, until the same dates respectively. The provision of this title relating to the rate of interest shall apply to taxes, assessments or Croton water rents remaining unpaid and due, for the nonpayment of which the lands and tenements liable therefor shall have been sold since the sixteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, or shall hereafter be sold at public auction; but such provisions shall not be construed to affect the rights of purchasers at sales for taxes, assessments or Croton water rents, made before March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, and to authorize the redemption of lands and tenements from sales theretofore made for any lesser sums than the sums collectible for such redemption under the provisions of law then existing. [As amended by Laws 1883, chap. 276, § 9.]

Laws 1881, chap. 33, § 3, and Laws 1853, chap. 579, § 15, which were the former governing statutes. See People ex rel. Haddock v. Cady, 41 Hun, 539.

§ 922. The receiver of taxes shall, on the first day of June in each year, make a return to the clerk of arrears of all taxes on real estate and of "regular rents" of Croton water which shall have been added thereto, remaining unpaid, shall thereafter receive no arrears. *

Laws 1853, chap. 579, § 11.

and

Water rents in New York city are chargeable only upon property actually supplied with water, and are not a tax or assessment, but merely a charge for water furnished. Hennessey v. Volkening, 30 Abb. N. C. 100; S. C., 22 N. Y. Supp. 528 (1893).

§ 923. There shall be ruled in the yearly assessment-rolls for taxes of each ward, a column headed "regular rents," in which immediately after the confirmation of such assessment-rolls, the clerk of arrears shall cause to be entered, opposite to the ward numbers of the property on which the said arrears may be due, the amounts due for "regular rents " for water, as transmitted to him by the commissioner of public works, in accordance with law, and the same shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner, with the taxes to which they shall be added.

Laws 1853, chap. 579, § 10.

§ 924. There shall be ruled in the yearly assessment-rolls of the taxes in each ward a column headed " arrears," in which the clerk of arrears shall annually, before any taxes for the year are collected, cause to be entered the word "arrears," or "sold," accord ing as the fact may be, opposite the ward numbers on which any arrears of taxes, or of taxes with the regular rents of Croton

water added, shall be due, or on which any assessment shall remain unpaid, which was due or confirmed, thirteen months prior to the first of June then last past, or which may have been sold for assessments, taxes or regular rents of Croton water, and yet be redeemable.

Laws 1853, chap. 579, § 12.

§ 925. There shall be ruled a column, headed " arrears," in every bill rendered for taxes, for loss on which said arrears for assessments, taxes, or taxes with "regular rents," for Croton water added, may be due as aforesaid, or which may have been sold and yet be redeemable; in which shall be written opposite the entry of the ward number of said lots, " arrears," or "sold," according as the fact may be; and it is hereby declared to be the duty of the receiver of taxes to cause a record to be kept of the ward numbers of all lots so noted in said bill as in arrears, or sold, when said bills are presented for settlement, and at the bottom of said bills shall be printed "The column for arrears indicates lots sold for arrears, or to be sold therefor; arrears to be paid and lots redeemed at the office of the clerk of arrears." Laws 1853, chap. 579, § 13.

§ 926. Whenever any tax on lands or tenements, or any assessments on lands or tenements for city improvements, shall remain unpaid for the term of three years from the time the same shall have been confirmed, and also whenever any regular rents for Croton water in said city shall have been due and unpaid for the term of four years from the time the same shall have been due, it shall and may be lawful for the clerk of arrears, under the direction of the comptroller, to advertise the said lands and tenements, or any of them, for sale, and by such advertisement the owner or owners of such lands and tenements, respectively, shall be required to pay the amount of such tax, assessment, or Croton water rents so remaining unpaid, together with the interest thereon at the rate of seven per cent. per annum to the time of payment, with the charges of such notice and advertisement, to the clerk of arrears, and notice shall be given by such advertisement that if default shall be made in such payment such lands and tenements will be sold at public auction at a day and place therein to be specified for the lowest term of years at which any person or persons shall offer to take the same in consideration of advancing the said tax, assessment, or Croton water rents, as the case may be, and the interest thereon as aforesaid to the time of sale, and together with the charges of the above-mentioned notices and advertisment and all other costs and charges accrued thereon; and if, notwithstanding such notice, the owner or owners shall refuse or neglect to pay such tax, assessment,

or Croton water rents, with the interest as aforesaid, and the charges attending such notice and advertisement, then it shall and may be lawful for the said clerk of arrears, under the direc tion of the said comptroller, to cause such lands and tenements to be sold at public auction for a term of years, for the purpose and in the manner expressed in the said advertisement, and such sale shall be made on the day and at the place for that purpose mentioned in the said advertisement, and shall be continued from time to time, if necessary, until all the lands and tenements so advertised shall be sold; and the said clerk of arrears shall give to the purchaser or purchasers of any such lands and tenements a certificate, in writing, describing the lands and tenements so purchased, the term of years for which the same shall have been sold, the sum paid therefor and the time when the purchaser will be entitled to a lease for the said lands and tenements. But no houses or lots, or improved or unimproved lands, in the city and county of New York, shall be hereafter sold or leased at public auction for the nonpayment of any tax, assessment, or Croton water rents which may be due thereon, unless notice of such sale shall have been published once in each week, successively, for three months in the City Record, or, when authorized pursuant to section sixty-six of this act, in ten of the daily newspapers printed and published in said city, which advertisement shall contain, appended to said notice, a particular and detailed statement of the property to be sold for taxes, assessments, or Croton water rents; or the said detailed statement and description, instead of being published in the City Record or in a newspaper, shall, at the option of the said comptroller, be printed in a pamphlet, in which case copies of the pamphlet shall be deposited in the office of the bureau of the clerk of arrears, and shall be delivered to any person applying therefor. And the notice provided for in this section to be given of the sale of houses. and lots and improved and unimproved lands shall also state that the detailed statement of the taxes, assesments, or Croton water rents, and the ownership of the property taxed, assessed, and on which the Croton water rents are unpaid, is published in the City Record or in one of the daily papers, naming the same, or in a pamphlet, as the case may be, and that copies of the pamphlet are deposited in the office of the bureau of the clerk of arrears, and will be delivered to any person applying for the same. No other notice or demand of the tax, assessment, or Croton water rents shall be required to authorize the sale of any lands or tenements as herein before provided. [As amended by Laws 1883, chap. 276.]

Laws 1871, chap. 381, § 3. See People ex rel. Haddock v. Cady, 41 Hun, 539 (1886); People ex rel. Morganthan v. Cady, 105 N. Y. 299 (1887);

Clarke v. Mayor, 23 J. & S. 259 (1888); Clark v. Mayor, 55 N. Y. Super. Ct. (J. & S.) 259; Smith v. Walker, 56 id. 391.

Notwithstanding the prohibitions in the Consolidation Act, if a person whose property has been assessed in the city of New York abandons proceedings for the reduction of the assessment awaits until the property is advertised for sale and pays the assessment, he may then maintain an action to set aside the whole assessment. Poth v. Mayor, 77 Hun, 225; S. C., 59 N. Y. St. Repr. 823; 28 N. Y. Supp. 365 (1894).

§ 927. In advertising houses and lots and improved or unimproved lands, to be sold for the nonpayment of taxes and assessments, or Croton water rents, it shall be the duty of the said clerk of arrears to advertise all the houses and lots or other lands lying contiguous to each other and belonging to the same owner in one parcel, unless otherwise requested by such owner, but he may sell separately the said houses and lots as the same may have been assessed.

Laws 1871, chap. 381, § 8.

§ 928. It shall be lawful for the comptroller to suspend or postpone any sale or sales of lands and tenements or any portion thereof which shall have been advertised for sale, to any time not exceeding fifteen months from the day specified in any such advertisement. All sales which shall be so postponed or suspended shall be made without further advertisement, other than a general notice of such postponement, to be published in the City Record, or, when authorized pursuant to section sixtysix of this act, in two or more of the daily newspapers in the city of New York, at least once a week until the time of sale, and such sale, when made, shall be as valid and effectual as if the same had taken place at the time for that purpose first advertised.

Laws 1871, chap. 381, §§ 5, 6.

§ 929 provides that the clerk of arrears or his assistant shall conduct the sales and no auction fees shall be charged. Certificates of sale shall be delivered to the purchaser without charge. [As amended by Laws 1895, chap. 905.]

Laws 1871, chap. 381, § 22.

§ 930. Sales in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth wards for taxes levied prior to eighteen hundred and seventy-four shall be made by the treasurer of Westchester county.

Laws 1871, chap. 381, § 9; Laws 1873, chap. 613, § 7; as amended by Laws of 1874, chap. 329, § 7.

§ 931. It shall be lawful for the clerk of arrears, at any sale of lands and tenements in the city and county of New York for