Real estate. Survey. Chap. 43. AN ACT to authorise the Hudson Aqueduct Company to take and hold real estate and to divert water from Springs now owned by said company, and providing for the appraisement of the damages occasioned thereby, and to borrow money for that purpose. Passed, March 3, 1855. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: §1. The President and Directors of the Hudson Aqueduct company, may take and hold any real estate for the purpose of supplying the city of Hudson with pure and wholesome water, and by their directors, agents, servants, and other persons employed, may enter upon the lands of any person or persons, which may be necessary for said purpose, and may take the water from any spring or springs now owned by said company, and divert and convey the same to said city, and may lay and construct pipes, aqueducts, trenches and embankments necessary or proper for said purpose, upon any lands so entered upon, taken and held by said company. §2. Before entering upon, taking or using any land, or diverting or using the water or any part thereof flowing from any spring now owned by said company for the purposes of this act, the directors of the company shall cause a survey and map to be made of the lands intended to be taken, or entered upon for any of said purposes, and by which map and survey the lands of the owner or occupant intended to be taken and used shall be designated, and also a survey and map of any spring or springs taken or used, or the waters of which, or any part of the water of which is intended to be used or diverted, and of the stream or streams flowing therefrom, and of the lands adjoining such stream or streams, and through which the same may flow, designating the owner or occupants of such lands, and which map shall be signed by the surveyor or engineer making the same, and the president of said company, and filed in the office of the clerk of the county of Columbia. The company, by any of its offi cers, agents or servants, with a surveyor or engineer, may enter upon any lands for the purpose of making said surveys and maps in this section specified. §3. In case the said company cannot agree with the owners and occupants of any lands, or with any person or persons entitled to, or claiming to be entitled to, the use of any water intended to be taken, diverted, or used as aforesaid, for the purchase thereof, or for the purchase of his, her, or their right and interest therein, the Directors of said company, or a majority of them, may apply in behalf of said company to the Supreme Court, at any general or special term thereof, held in the third judicial district, for the appointment of three commissioners, by whom the compensation to be paid for the damage suffered or to be suffered, by any person or persons, by reason of taking said lands, or diverting and using the water or any part thereof, flowing through or along any land, from any spring or springs now owned by said company, or by reason of laying and constructing pipes, aqueducts, trenches or embankments, shall be ascertained and determined; and in case of the death, resignation, refusal or disability to act, of any of said commissioners, the court may appoint others in their places. The said commissioners, before entering upon the duties of their office, shall take the oath prescribed by the twelfth article of the constitution of this State. The commissioners shall cause a notice, of at least ten days, of the time and place of their meeting to be served upon such of the owners and occupants of the said land, or entitled, or claiming to be entitled, to the use of the water flowing from such spring or springs, as can be found in this State, which may be served personally, or in their absence from their dwellings or places of business, by leaving the same thereat with some person of suitable age; and in case of any legal disability to act thereupon, by serving notice in like manner upon his guardian or person appointed to act for him, as hereinafter directed; and in case any of the owners cannot be found in this State, such notice shall be given by publishing the same for four weeks successively in one of the newspapers published in said city, and in the State paper; and if any of said owners shall be married women, insane, infants or idiots, the said court shall appoint some suitable person to attend in their behalf before the said commissioners, and take care of their interests in the prem Mode of obtaining title to land. Subpœna. Appeal. ises. The commissioners or any one of them, may administer the usual oaths to witnesses produced before them; and may adjourn, from time to time as they may deem necessary. They shall make a written report of all their proceedings, containing the testimony taken by them, and showing the sum awarded to each owner or any other person, and return the same to the said court to be filed of record. All parties having liens upon such premises may be made parties to the above proceedings, and the amounts payable to each shall be designated in said report. The company shall pay to each commissioner the sum of three dollars per day for every day necessarily spent by him in the performance of his duties under this act, and to each witness, sworn and testifying, the sum of fifty cents per day. $4. On the application of any party interested, any judge or justice of the peace may issue a subpoena requiring witnesses to attend before such commissioners, and such subpœna shall have the same force and effect, and witnesses duly subpoenaed by virtue thereof, and refusing or neglecting to obey the same, shall be subject to the same penalties and liabilities, as though such subpoena were issued from a court of record in a suit pending therein. § 5. The said company or any party to the proceedings of the commissioners, may appeal from any award or determination of the commissioners to the Supreme Court, providing the party appealing shall, within ten days after such award or determination shall be made, give written notice of appeal to the other party or parties interested in the same; and the same court shall examine the report of the commissioners, and, on good cause shown, the court may set the same aside and order new proceedings and appraisment; and the same court may make such orders in reference to the proceedings of the commissioners and of notices to be given to parties, as may not be inconsistent with this act, and as the nature of the case and the interest of the parties may require; and the said commissioners shall again examine the case, and their decision then made shall be final. If at any time after an attempted or actual ascertainment of compensation under this act, or any purchase of lands, springs or water flowing therefrom, or of any part thereof, or the right to divert the same or any part thereof, for the use of said com pany, the title acquired to all or any part of said land, springs or water, or the right to divert and use such water, or any part thereof shall fail or be deemed defective, the said company may proceed anew to perfect such title by procuring an ascertainment of the compensation proper to be made to any person or persons whose title, claims, or interest in, or lien upon, such lands, springs, water, or the right to use such water or any part thereof shall not have been compensated and extinguished according to law, and by making payment thereof in the manner heretofore and hereinafter provided, as near as may be. $6. Upon the payment or legal tender of the compen- Award of sation determined, as before provided, the said company damages. shall be entitled to enter upon, for the purpose contemplated by this act, all the lands, waters and real estate for which such compensation shall be paid or tendered, as aforesaid, and to hold and use the same for the said purposes to them and their successors and assigns forever; if any person to whom any sum shall be awarded, or shall be entitled to the same by virtue of said award, cannot be found, or shall refuse to receive the sum awarded to him, then the said payment may be made by depositing the amount of said award to the credit of the said person in such bank as may be appointed by said court; a certificate of such deposit, signed by the cashier of said bank, shall be published by said company in a newspaper published in said city, four weeks successively, immediately after said deposit; if the person to whom compensation is awarded, or who is entitled to receive the same as aforesaid, be under legal disability as aforesaid, payment may be made to his guardian, or person appointed as aforesaid by said court; and if said guardian or person appointed cannot be found, then by deposit in bank as aforesaid. §7. The said company shall also take and hold for the Land how purposes contemplated by this act, all the lands, waters, and use of water and real estate, which they shall in any way legally enter upon and take and divert by virtue thereof, to them and to their successors and assigns for ever. held. cy. §8. No person shall be deemed incompetent as a com- Competenmissioner or witness in any proceedings under this act, by reason of his being an inhabitant of the city of Hudson, and using the water of said company. Loan. Loan how applied. Term of loan not to years. May tax therefor. §9. It shall be lawful for the president and directors of said company, on the faith and credit of said company, to borrow a sum of money not exceeding six thousand dollars, and to execute bonds therefor under their common seal and the signature of the president and treasurer of the said company. §10. The sum shall be specifically and solely applied and appropriated to purchasing real estate, and in purchasing and laying down iron pipes by said company. §11. The loan of the sum hereby authorized, shall be exceed ten for a term not exceeding ten years, and shall be repaid in annual instalments, and the interest not to exceed the rate of seven per cent. per annum, shall be paid annually; and the said company are hereby authorized to raise annually, by a tax on the inhabitants of the city of Hudson, who shall use the water of their aqueducts, to be imposed, assessed, levied and collected, in the manner provided by by the sixth section of the act entitled "An act to incorporate the Hudson Aqueduct company," passed March twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixteen, the annual interest on the above mentioned loan, and the instalment thereof which shall become due and payable, and pay over the same in discharge of the said instalment and interest. § 12. This act shall take effect immediately. Chap, 44. AN ACT to amend the one hundred and fifty-third Passed March 3, 1855. The People of the State of New-York, represented in §1. The one hundred and fifty-third section of the |