demand, give to the grantee, or those claiming under him, a certificate of non-redemption, which shall include a statement of the date of conveyance, and which, together with proof of service of such notice to redeem, may be recorded and filed in the office of the Livingston county clerk, whereupon it shall be the duty of such clerk to note on the margin of the record of such mortgage that it has been discharged, in so far as the lands so conveyed are concerned, as of the date of conveyance, together with a reference to the book and page in which such certificate of non-redemption has been recorded.

§ 13. Redemption by mortgagee. The holder of any mortgage which is duly recorded at the time of the conveyance may, at any time after the conveyance of all or any part of the mortgaged premises for unpaid taxes, or assessments, and before the expiration of six months from the time of filing of the evidence of the service of the notice to redeem with the Livingston county treasurer, redeem the premises so conveyed, or any part thereof, from such conveyance. The redemption shall be made by paying into the Livingston county treasury, for the use of the grantee, or those claiming under him, the same amount which such holder would be required to pay upon redemption of such premises if he were an occupant thereof. The holder of such mortgage shall have a lien upon the premises redeemed for the amount so paid with interest from the time of payment, in like manner as if such amount had been included in the mortgage.

§ 14. Effect of recording conveyances; limitations. Every such conveyance heretofore executed by the Livingston county treasurer which has for two years been recorded in the Livingston county clerk's office, shall be conclusive evidence that the sale and all proceedings prior thereto, from and including the assessments of the lands, and all notices required by law to be given previous to the expiration of the time allowed for redemption, were regular and were regularly given, published and served according to the provisions of all laws directing and requiring the same or in any manner relating thereto, and all conveyances hereafter executed by the Livingston county treasurer shall have a like effect after the expiration of two years from their respective dates of record. Provided, however, that all such conveyances, and the taxes and tax sales on which they are or shall be based, shall be subject to cancellation, by reason of the payment of such taxes, or by reason of the levying of such taxes by a town having no legal right to assess the land on which they are laid, or by reason of any defect in the proceedings affecting the jurisdiction upon constitutional grounds, on direct application to the county treasurer, or in an action or proceeding brought before a competent court therefor; provided, however, that such application shall be made, or such action or proceeding shall be brought, in the case of all sales held. prior to the year nineteen hundred thirty-six, before June first, nineteen hundred thirty-eight; and in the case of a sale after January first, nineteen hundred thirty-six, such application shall

be made or such action or proceeding shall be brought within five years from the last day of the tax sale on which such conveyance is based, and further provided that nothing herein contained shall revive or permit any action or proceeding now barred by any law or reason whatever.

§ 15. Restraining waste; possession after recording conveyance. 1. Neither the owner, occupant nor any other person shall have the right to despoil of their value any lands sold for taxes by the Livingston county treasurer, by the removal of buildings or by cutting, removing or destroying timber, or other valuable products, growing, existing or being thereon at the time of the sale. The purchaser of any lands at a Livingston county tax sale, whose bid therefor shall have been fully paid, or his successors in interest, may at any time before or after obtaining his deed, cause to be served a notice on any person despoiling such lands or interested in such despoliation, either personally or by leaving the same at the residence of such person, or with any member of his family of suitable age and discretion. The notice shall describe such lands, substantially as sold, and shall state that they were sold for taxes by the Livingston county treasurer, and that an action to recover the value of the buildings, timber or other products destroyed or removed therefrom, after the date of sale thereof, will be instituted against all persons concerned in such despoliation. If such lands shall not be redeemed, every person engaged or interested in making such despoliation, upon whom service of the notice shall have been made, shall be liable to pay to the holder of the tax sale certificate or the conveyance the full value of any buildings so destroyed or removed therefrom, and of all the timber, bark or other products so cut or destroyed or removed therefrom, from the date of the sale of such lands to the termination of such action, and any person engaged in any of such acts may be restrained by injunction from committing any such waste at any time after the service of such notice, regardless of whether the time to redeem has expired or not, upon proper application to the Livingston county judge.

2. The grantee named in such conveyance, or his or its successors in interest, after such conveyance has been recorded as herein provided, shall be entitled to the immediate use and possession of such premises, and may cause the occupants of such real estate to be removed therefrom and the possession thereof to be delivered to him or it, in the same manner and by the same proceedings, by and before the same officers, as in the case of a tenant holding over after the expiration of his term without permission of his landlord.

§ 16. When purchase moneys to be refunded. Whenever any grantee shall be unable to secure and retain the possession of the real estate conveyed to him, by reason of any error or irregularity in the assessment or levying of a tax or in proceedings for the collection thereof, or when the county treasurer shall have canceled any tax sale certificate, or when any such tax sale certificate shall have been canceled by a judgment of a court of competent jurisdic

tion, the board of supervisors of said county shall refund the purchase money so paid, with interest at the rate of six per centum per annum from the date of purchase. Such claim shall be audited by said board in the same manner as other county charges, and upon payment, the amount thereof shall be charged by said board. to the tax district from which the tax was returned, and the same shall be levied and collected in the succeeding year and paid to the county treasurer.

§ 17. Unpaid taxes to be continuing liens. In every case where the collectors of the towns in said county have returned or shall return unpaid taxes to the county treasurer, such unpaid taxes shall be and remain liens upon the properties respectively affected thereby, and said properties shall respectively be and remain holden for the same and the interest thereon and the expenses provided for in this act, until the same have been paid and discharged in full.

§ 18. Actions to recover unpaid taxes. In every case where the collectors of the towns in said county shall have been discharged from liability on account of any uncollected taxes returned by them to the county treasurer of said county, and where such taxes remain unpaid and uncollected, the said county treasurer, at any time after the lapse of thirty days from the return of such taxes, may maintain an action, as upon contract, against the person or party owning the property at the time such action is brought, to recover the amount of any unpaid tax, together with five per centum thereof, and interest from the time of such return at the rate of ten per centum per annum, in any court of competent jurisdiction, in which the proceedings, costs, judgments and executions shall be the same and with like effect as in actions between other public officers and individuals. A warrant of attachment against the property of the defendant may be granted, upon the application of the plaintiff, as provided by the civil practice act and rules, regardless of the amount of such tax. A judgment in such action for any amount, when docketed in the office of the county clerk, shall be a lien upon the real property of the defendant, and the judgment shall have the same priority, as such lien, as the taxes upon which there was a recovery in such action, and an execution upon the judgment may be issued and enforced against the real property of the defendant regardless of the amount of such judgment.

The remedy provided in this section shall not be exclusive but shall be in addition to all other remedies in this act or elsewhere provided by law. Nothing in this section shall be construed to repeal or abridge any powers now had by officers for the collection of taxes in said towns.

§ 19. Lands acquired by county exempt from taxation; sale of such lands. 1. After the county of Livingston has acquired the title in fee to any lands sold for taxes in said county, such lands shall be exempt while so owned by said county from all taxes; and the county treasurer of said county is hereby directed to prepare

L. 1885, ch. 185, repealed.

and present to the board of supervisors on the first day of its annual session in each and every year, a statement designating such lands, and the said board of supervisors is hereby authorized and directed to strike such lands from the assessment rolls of the towns in which the same are situated.

2. The title acquired by the said county pursuant to this act, may be disposed of by the board of supervisors at such times and on such terms as shall be determined by a majority of such board, at any regular or special meeting thereof. Whenever a sale of any lands belonging to said county shall be made, the said county treasurer is hereby directed to cause a notice of such sale, designating the lands sold, and the name of the purchaser, to be filed with the town clerk of the town in which the same are situated; and the said town clerk is hereby directed to notify the assessors of said town of the filing of such notice or notices in time for the said assessors to assess said lands on the next assessment roll.

§ 20. Prior taxes, sales and conveyances confirmed. The assessment and collection of taxes, the sales of lands for non-payment of taxes, and the certificates and conveyances thereof, heretofore made in the county of Livingston under and by virtue of chapter one hundred and eighty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and eightythree and all acts amendatory thereof, and all acts heretofore done and all proceedings heretofore taken under said acts, are hereby in all respects legalized, ratified and confirmed.

§ 21. Acts repealed; saving clause. Chapter one hundred eightyfive of the laws of eighteen hundred eighty-three, as amended by chapter one hundred sixty-five of the laws of nineteen hundred twenty-six, and all other acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith, so far as the county of Livingston is affected thereby, are hereby repealed, except that the rights of purchasers and all other persons who have acquired any rights or interests in lands, so sold thereunder, shall in no wise be affected by said repeal; and all certificates issued or conveyances made or to be made on account of sales of lands under the aforesaid acts shall have the same force and effect as if the said acts had not been repealed, save only as specifically provided herein.

§ 22. Future amendments to general laws not to affect Livingston county. Except as such amendments shall affect property in which the state of New York is interested, no amendments to the tax law of the state of New York, effective after January first, nineteen hundred thirty-six, concerning or regulating the sale of lands for unpaid taxes, or the interest or penalties on such sales, or redemption therefrom, or the effect thereof, shall apply to Livingston county, unless expressly made applicable to Livingston county by the terms thereof.

§ 23. Unconstitutional provisions. If any section or provision of this act be decided by the courts to be unconstitutional or invalid, the same shall not affect the validity of the act as a whole or any part thereof other than the part so decided to be unconstitutional or invalid.

§ 24. When to take effect. This act shall take effect immediately.

CHAPTER 314

AN ACT to amend the civil practice act, in relation to the examination of accounts and inventories of committees for incompetent persons

Became a law April 8, 1936, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

amended.

Section 1. Section thirteen hundred and seventy-nine of the 1379 civil practice act is hereby amended to read as follows:

departments

of accounts

department.

§ 1379. Annual examination of accounts and inventories. In the month of February of each year, or thereafter, in counties outside the first and second judicial departments, the presiding 1st, 2nd judge of the court by which the committee of the property was excepted. appointed, or if he was appointed by the supreme court, the county judge of the county where the order appointing him is entered, and in the first judicial department, the presiding justice of the appellate division, must examine, or cause to be examined under Examination his direction by persons designated by him as referees, all accounts and and inventories filed by committees of the person and property inventories. since the first day of February of the preceding year. In the second judicial department, the presiding justice of the appellate 2nd division, or a justice of the supreme court or an official referee designated by the justices of the appellate division, or a majority of them, at the request of the presiding justice, must examine, or cause to be examined under his direction by persons designated by the presiding justice of the appellate division as referees, all such accounts and inventories. The examination of accounts and inventories filed in the first judicial department pursuant to the 1st provisions of the preceding section as amended shall be examined department by or under the direction of the presiding justice of the appellate division, and the examination of accounts and inventories filed in the second judicial department pursuant to such section shall be examined by or under the direction of the presiding justice of the appellate division, or a justice of the supreme court or an official referee designated by the justices of the appellate division, or a majority of them, as aforesaid. A referee, designated as aforesaid, may be required by the presiding justice or judge designating him, in conducting examinations of accounts and inventories of incom- Examination petents, to examine the committee and other necessary witnesses under oath, and to take their testimony and reduce same to writing. Such a referee may also be required to report in writing to the court the result of the examination and to make such recommendations to the court as shall be for the best interests of the incompetent. If it appears upon the examination that a committee appointed as prescribed in this article has omitted to file his annual inventory or accounting, or the affidavit relating thereto, as prescribed in the last section, or if the judge is of the opinion

and proof.