and records. The said commission may also, at its pleasure, retain in its employment any person or persons now employed by the said board of rapid transit railroad commissioners, and all said persons shall be eligible for transfer and appointment to positions under the public service commission of the first district. § 85. Pending actions and proceedings. This act shall not affect pending actions or proceedings, civil or criminal, brought by or against the board of railroad commissioners or the commission of gas and electricity, or the board of rapid transit railroad commissioners, but the same may be prosecuted or defended in the name of the public service commission, provided the subject-matter thereof is within the statutory jurisdiction of such commission. Any investigation, examination or proceeding undertaken, commenced or instituted by the said boards or commission or either of them prior to the taking effect of this act may be conducted and continued to a final determination by the proper public service commission in the same manner under the same terms and conditions, and with the same effect as though such boards or commission had not been abolished. § 86. Construction.- Wherever the terms board of railroad commissioners, or commission of gas and electricity or inspector of gas meters or board of rapid transit railroad commissioners occur in any law, contract or document or whenever in any law, contract or document reference is made to such boards, commission or inspector, such terms or reference shall be deemed to refer to and include the public service commissions as established by this act, so far as such law, contract or document pertains to matters which are within the jurisdiction of the said public service commissions. Nothing in this act contained shall be deemed to apply to or operate upon interstate or foreign commerce. § 87. Repeal. The following acts and parts of acts, together with all other acts amendatory of such acts, and all acts and parts of acts otherwise in conflict with this act, are hereby repealed; Laws of 1905, chapter 737. Laws of 1905, chapter 728. Laws of 1904, chapter 158. Laws of 1896, chapter 456. Laws of 1894, chapter 452. Laws of 1892, chapter 534. Laws of 1891, chapter 4, sections 1, 2 and 3. Laws of 1890, chapter 565, sections 150 to 172 inclusive. Laws of 1890, chapter 566, sections 62, 63 and 64. § 88. Appropriation.-There shall be appropriated for the use of the commissions, and for the payment of salaries and disbursements under this act, from money not otherwise appropriated, the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the use of the commission of the first district and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the use of the commission of the second district. § 89. Time of taking effect. This act shall take effect July first, nineteen hundred and seven. APPENDIX L. THE RAPID TRANSIT ACT. Laws 1891, chapter 4; as amended and supplemented by Laws 1892, chapters 102 and 556; Laws 1894, chapters 528 and 752; Laws 1895, chapter 519; Laws 1896, chapter 729; Laws 1900, chapter 616; Laws 1901, chapter 587; Laws 1902, chapters 533, 542, 544 and 584; Laws 1904, chapters 562 and 564; Laws 1905, chapters 599 and 631; and Laws 1906, chapters 109, 472, 606 and 607. LAWS 1891, CHAP. 4. AN ACT to provide for rapid transit railways in cities of over one million inhabitants. Approved by the Governor, January 31, 1891. Passed, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly. do enact as follows: § 1. In each city having over one million of inhabitants, according to the last preceding national or state census, there shall be a board of rapid transit railroad commissioners in and for such city, which shall consist of the mayor of such city, the comptroller or other chief financial officer of such city, the president of the chamber of commerce of the state of New York, by virtue of his office, and the following named persons, to wit: William Steinway, Seth Low, John Claflin, Alexander E. Orr and John H. Starin. The members of said board shall be styled commissioners of rapid transit. Vacancies which may take place in the offices so held by the persons specifically named herein as suen commissioners shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining members of said board. Provided, however, that vacancies which may at any time after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six take place in the offices so held by the persons specifically named herein as such commissioners, or by their successors heretofore elected, shall be filled by the mayor of such city, and any person so hereafter appointed by the mayor of such city to fill any such vacancy shall be a citizen of the United States and of the state of New York and a bona fide resident of the city in which such person is appointed. The board thus constituted shall have and exercise the specific authority and powers hereinafter conferred and also such other and necessary powers as may be requisite to the efficient performance of the duties imposed upon said board by this act. (Laws 1891, ch. 4, § 1, as amended by L. 1894, ch. 752, § 1, and L. 1906, ch. 472, § 1.) § 2. Each of the said commissioners other than the mayor and comptroller or other chief financial officer of such eity shall take and subscribe an oath faithfully to perform the duties of his office, which oath shall be filed in the office of the clerk of any county within which there shall be a city of the class mentioned in the first section of this act. (Laws 1891, ch. 4, § 2, as amended by L. 1894, ch. 752, § 2.) § 3. Within twenty days after the filing of the oaths of said commissioners so required to make and file the same the commissioners of rapid transit in respect to each of such cities shall meet and organize as a board. The board when so organized, may frame and adopt by-laws not inconsistent with this act, and establish suitable rules and regulations for the proper exercise of the powers and duties hereby conferred and imposed, and may, from time to time, amend the same. Four members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a less number may adjourn meetings. The said board shall adopt a seal, and keep a record of its proceedings, which shall be a public record and be open to inspection at all reasonable times. (Laws 1891, ch. 4, § 3, as amended by L. 1894, ch. 752, § 3.) § 4. The said board upon its own motion may proceed, from time to time, to consider and determine whether it is for the interest of the public and of the city in which it is appointed, that a rapid transit railway or railways for the conveyance and transportation of persons and property should be established therein, and upon the request in writing of the local authorities of any such city at any time, the said board shall proceed forthwith to consider and determine the same questions, and in each case the said board shall conduct such an inquest and investigation as may be deemed necessary in the premises. If, after any such consideration and inquest, the said board shall determine that a rapid transit railway or railways, in addition to any already existing authorized or proposed are necessary for the interest of the public, and such city, it shall proceed to determine and establish the route or routes thereof and the general plan of construction. Such general plan shall show the general mode of operation and contain such details as to manner of construction as may be necessary to show the extent to which any street, avenue or other public place is to be encroached upon and the property abutting thereon affected, and the concurrent votes of at least six members of the board shall be necessary for the purpose of determining and establishing such route or routes and plan of construction. The said board, from time to time, may locate the route or routes of such railway or railways over, under, upon, through and across any streets, avenues, bridges, viaducts, rivers, waters and lands within such city, including blocks between streets or avenues or, partly over, under, upon, through and across any streets, avenues, bridges, viaducts, and lands within such city and partly through blocks between streets or avenues; provided that the consent of the owners of one-half in value of the property bounded on and the consent also of the local authorities having control of that portion of a street, bridge, viaduct, or highway, upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railway or railways be first obtained, or in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, that the determination of three It is enacted by section 10 of chapter 752 of the Laws of 1894, that "whenever it is expressly provided in the act hereby amended that any act of the board of rapid transit railroad commissioners shall be done by the concurrent vote of four of the members of said board, the act hereby amended is further amended so as to provide in such cases that such vote shall be that of six of such members." This amendment operates upon the fourth, eleventh, fourteenth and twentieth sections of the Rapid Transit Act of 1891 (chap. 4). |