L. 1916, ch. 319.

Penalties for violation.

$ 150.

and severally for each such violation and each such nuisance be subject to a civil penalty of fifty dollars. Such persons shall also be liable for all costs, expenses and disbursements paid or incured by said department, by any of the officers thereof or by any agent, employee or contractor of the same, in the removal of any such nuisance or violation. Any person who having been served with a notice or order to remove any such nuisance or violation, shall fail to comply with said notice or order within five days after such service, or shall continue to violate any provision or requirement of this chapter in the respect named in said notice or order, shall also be subject to a civil penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars. For the recovery of any such penalties, costs, expenses or disbursements, an action may be brought in any court of civil jurisdiction in said cities. In case the notice required by section one hundred and forty of this chapter is not filed, or in case the owner, lessee or other person having control of such tenement house does not reside within the state, or cannot after diligent effort be served with process therein, the existence of a nuisance or of any violation of this chapter, or of any violation of an order or a notice made by said department, in said tenement house or on the lot on which it is situated, shall subject said tenement house and lot to a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars. Said penalty shall be a lien upon said house and lot. (Amended by L. 1916, ch. 319, in effect Apr. 26, 1916.)

The penalty imposed by the statute is recoverable without reference to the knowledge or negligence of the owner, but the owner is not liable for the penalty because of a single act of vice, undiscovered and undiscoverable either by him or his agent. There must be a condition of permanence sufficient to constitute a use of the premises for the prohibited acts, and proof of acts of vice on a single day by two female occupants of a tenement house, followed at once by their eviction, is not sufficient in itself to show that the building has been used for prostitution within the meaning of the statute. Tenement House Department v. McDevitt (1915), 215 N. Y. 160, affg. 165 App. Div. 367, 150 N. Y. Supp. 583.

Proof required.-In order to recover a penalty under this section for a violation of section 120, which provides: "The construction, alteration or conversion of such house, building or structure shall be in accordance with such approved specifications and plans," plaintiff must prove that after the plans were filed and approved alterations were made but not in conformity with the plans, and in the absence of proof that either or both of two sets of plans received in evidence were ever approved, or a permit issued thereunder, or that work had been done after the filing of the plans, defendant's motion for a dismissal of the complaint at the close of plaintiff's case should have been granted. Tenement House Department v. Whitelaw (1916), 93 Misc. 513, 157 N. Y. Supp. 277.

$150. Vagrancy.

The amendment of 1915, to this section does not repeal by implication section 89 (5) of chapter 655 of the Laws of 1910 known as the Inferior Criminal Courts Act as amended by Laws of 1912, chap. 460; Laws of 1913, chap. 372, and Laws of 1914, chap. 454. People ex rel. Brady v. Maher (1915), 92 Misc. 50, 155 N. Y. Supp. 279.

In order to sustain a conviction for a violation of subdivision 4 of this section,

§§ 151, 171.

Laws and ordinances.

L. 1916, ch. 319.

as amended in 1913, it must be shown that defendant has knowledge that the house is a house of prostitution; such knowledge may be proven either by direct evidence or by circumstances from which such knowledge may be inferred. Where defendant was convicted in a Magistrate's Court of a violation of such statute, and the only evidence was that of a police officer who testified that he called with another man by whom he was introduced to this defendant and another woman; that the other man then left; that he, the officer, had a conversation about the weather with the other woman, and then was solicited and taken by her into another room; that the other woman there offered to commit an act of prostitution, after which he placed the other woman under arrest, and he further testified that this defendant was present at the time of the conversation before he went into the other room but that he had no conversation with this defendant and that this defendant took no part in his conversation with the other woman, and it appears that after the arrest of the other woman the defendant was asked by the officer whether she lived in the premises and she said that she did, and had just paid the fourth month's rent, and she was thereupon placed under arrest, the conviction will be reversed and a new trial ordered. People v. Brown (1915), 92 Misc. 622, 157 N .Y. Supp. 465.

A complaint, in an action to recover a penalty under this section, alleging that on or about certain dates mentioned defendant tenement house was used as a house of prostitution in that "ill disposed persons and common prostitutes assembled therein at the time aforesaid and did there receive and entertain, and did there commit and perpetrate the practice of prostitution . . . with the permission of the owner of said house and its agent," states all the facts necessary to constitute a cause of action, though it also contains allegations purporting to bring the case within section 153 of said statute but which are immaterial to the cause of action, said section merely stating a rule of evidence whereby the consent of the owner may be proved and which will be ruled upon by the trial justice. Tenement House Department v. Two Hundred and Two Hundred and Two Manhattan Ave. (1914), 91 Misc. 618, 155 N. Y. Supp. 615.

§ 171. Laws repealed.-Subd. 1, amended by L. 1916, ch. 319, in effect Apr. 26, 1916, as follows:

1. All statutes of the state and ordinances of cities of the first class, so far as inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter, are hereby repealed; provided, that nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed as repealing or abrogating any present law or ordinance in any city of the first class, further restricting or prohibiting the occupation of cellars, or increasing the amount of air space to each individual occupying a room, or as prohibiting any future ordinance in respect thereto. Wherever the provisions of any local ordinance or regulation impose requirements for lower height of building or a less percentage of lot that may be occupied or require wider or larger courts or deeper yards, the provisions of such local ordinance or regulation shall govern. Where, however, the provisions of this chapter impose requirements for lower height of building or a less percentage of lot that may be occupied or require wider or larger courts or deeper yards, than are required by such local ordinance or regulation, the provisions of this chapter shall govern.

THEATRICAL EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES-TORRENS LAW. 721

Cross-references.

THEATRICAL EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES.

Contracts; General Business L., § 183.

TORRENS LAW.

Amended; Real Property L., §§ 371 ff.

§§ 46, 48.

Special town meeting.

L. 1916, ch. 341.

TOWN LAW.

(L. 1909, ch. 63.)

§ 46. Special town meeting.-Except as herein set forth special town meetings shall also be held whenever twenty-five taxpayers upon the last town assessment-roll shall, by written application addressed to the town clerk, require a special town meeting to be called, for the purpose of raising money for the support of the poor; or to vote upon the question of raising and appropriating money for the construction and maintenance of any bridges which the town may be authorized by law to erect or maintain; or for the purpose of determining in regard to the prosecution or defense of actions, or the raising of money therefor; or to vote upon any proposition which might have been determined by the electors of the town at the last biennial town meeting, but was not acted upon thereat; or to vote upon or determine any question, proposition or resolution which may lawfully be voted upon or determined at a special town meeting, except that in towns having an assessed valuation of ten million dollars or more, located within a county adjoining a city of the first class, propositions above specified shall be submitted on an application of taxpayers of such town, at a regular or special town meeting, only upon the application of at least one hundred taxpayers for the first ten million dollars of assessed valuation and by at least one hundred taxpayers for each additional ten million dollars of assessed valuation or major fraction thereof. Special town meetings may also be held upon the like application of the supervisor, commissioners of highways or overseers of the poor, to determine questions pertaining to their respective duties as such officers, and which the electors of a town have a right to determine. An application and notice heretofore made and given for a special town meeting to be hereafter held for a purpose not heretofore authorized by law, but now authorized by law, shall be as valid and of the same force and effect as if such purpose had been authorized by law at the time of such application and notice. All special town meetings in towns in which the regular biennial town meetings are held at the time of the general election may be held in any such town at one polling place therein, as near to the geographical center of the town as practicable, to be fixed by the town board, and shall be conducted by the justices of the peace and town clerk, the latter to act as clerk of such meeting. A resolution fixing such place shall remain in force in respect to subsequent special town meetings until abrogated by a like resolution changing such polling place. (Amended by L. 1910, ch. 188, and L. 1916, ch. 341, in effect Apr. 27, 1916.)

§ 48. Notice of proposition to be determined by ballot.-No proposition or other matter than the election of officers shall be voted upon by ballot at any town meeting, unless the town officers or at least twenty-five taxpayers upon the last preceding town assessment roll whose signatures shall be acknowledged in the same manner as a deed to be recorded, and

L. 1916, ch. 346.

Town officers.

$ 80.

in towns with a population of more than ten thousand inhabitants as appears by the last federal census, at least fifty taxpayers upon the last preceding town assessment roll whose signatures shall be acknowledged in like manner, shall, at least twenty days before the town meeting, file with the town clerk a written application, plainly stating the question they desire to have voted upon, and requesting a vote thereon at such town meeting; provided, however, that in a town having less than fifteen hundred inhabitants, such application shall be sufficient if so signed and acknowledged by ten per centum of such taxpayers, but nothing herein contained shall require the signatures of over twenty-five taxpayers in such town. When town officers, as such, make the application for a vote to raise money for purposes pertaining to their duties, they shall file with their application a statement of their account to date, with the facts and circumstances which, in their opinion, make the appropriation applied for necessary, and their estimation of the sum necessary for the purpose stated, which statement may be examined by any elector of the town, and shall be publicly read by the town clerk at the meeting when and where the vote is taken, at the request of any elector. The town clerk shall, at the expense of his town, give at least ten days' notice, posted conspicuously in at least four of the most public places in the town, of any such proposed question, and that a vote will be taken by ballot at the town meeting mentioned. He shall also, at the expense of his town, provide a ballot box, properly labeled, briefly indicating the question to be voted upon, into which all ballots voted upon the question indicated shall be deposited. He shall also prepare and have at the town meeting a sufficient number of written or printed ballots, both for and against the question to be voted upon, for the use of the electors. The vote shall be canvassed, the result determined and entered upon the minutes of the meeting, the same as votes given for town officers. (Amended by L. 1916, ch. 79, in effect Mch. 30, 1916.)

§ 80. Town officers.-Except as otherwise provided in this section, there shall be elected at the biennial town meeting in each town, by ballot, one supervisor, one town clerk, two justices of the peace, two assessors, one collector, one or two overseers of the poor, not more than five constables and one superintendent of highways, excepting that in towns which shall have adopted a resolution that thereafter such town superintendent shall be appointed by the town board, pursuant to the provisions of section forty-one of the highway law, he shall be appointed as therein prescribed. Provided, however, that in towns in a county containing two hundred thousand or less inhabitants, according to the last federal census or state enumeration, adjoining a city of the first class containing a population of over one million, the town superintendent of highways hereafter elected or appointed shall hold office for the term of four years. At the first biennial town meeting in each town, after this section as hereby amended