50-G - Recording of notice of defect.

§  50-g.  Recording of notice of defect. 1. Wherever any statute, city  charter or local law provides that no civil action shall  be  maintained  against  a  city for damages or injuries to person or property sustained  in consequence of any street,  highway,  bridge,  culvert,  sidewalk  or  crosswalk  being  out  of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, or in  consequence of the existence of snow or ice thereon,  unless  it  appear  that  written  notice  of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed  condition, or of the existence of the snow or ice, was actually given to  the city or its specified officer or employee and there was a failure or  neglect within a reasonable time after the  giving  of  such  notice  to  repair  or remove the defect, danger or obstruction complained of, or to  cause the snow or ice  to  be  removed,  or  the  place  otherwise  made  reasonably  safe,  the  city shall keep an indexed record, in a separate  book, of all written notices which it shall receive of the existence  of  such  defective,  unsafe,  dangerous or obstructed condition, or of such  snow or ice, which record shall state the date of receipt of the notice,  the nature and location of the condition stated to exist, and  the  name  and  address  of  the  person from whom the notice is received. All such  written notices shall be  indexed  according  to  the  location  of  the  alleged  defective,  unsafe,  dangerous  or obstructed condition, or the  location of accumulated snow or ice.    2. Where the statute, charter or local law requires that  the  written  notice be given to a specified city officer or employee the record shall  be  made and kept by the person so specified. Where the statute, charter  or local law requires that the written notice be given to any of several  specified city officers or employees, or omits to specify the officer or  employee to whom the written notice shall be given, the record shall  be  made  and  kept by an officer or employee designated for that purpose by  the governing body of the city. In the absence of such  designation  the  record shall be made and kept by the commissioner of public works of the  city  or, if there be no officer of that title, by an officer exercising  corresponding duties. The record of notices of defects shall be a public  record. The record of each notice shall be preserved  for  a  period  of  five years after the date it is received.    3.  This  section shall be applicable notwithstanding any inconsistent  provisions  of  law,  general,  special  or  local,  or  any  limitation  contained in the provisions of any city charter.