g§ 1436-1438]   Commissioners of Estimate.                        687

shall be lawful for the duly authorized agents of the said depart¬
ment or board, and all persons acting under its authority, and by
its direction, to enter, in the daytime, into and upon any and all
lands tenements, and hereditaments which it shall be necessary
to enter into and upon for the purpose of making such surveys,
maps or plans or for the purpose of making such soundings or bor¬
ings as the said department or board may deem necessary.

Appointment and duties of commissioners of estimate.

§ 1437. When the said maps, surveys or plans have been filed as
hereinbefore provided, the said department or board of the said city
acting by and through the corporation counsel of said city, is hereby
authorized to make application to a special term of the supreme
court in, and for the judicial district in which said lands are situated,
for the appointment of commissioners of estimate, and the said court
shall thereupon name three discreet and disinterested persons, being
residents of The City of New York, as such commissioners of esti¬
mate, for the purpose of performing the duties hereinafter men¬
tioned. Ten days' notice of such application, Sundays and holidays
excluded, shall be published in the "City Record," and the corpora¬
tion newspapers, and also at the option of the corporation counsel
in other newspapers, not exceeding three in number, published in
said City of New York. Upon the appointment of said commis¬
sioners they shall severally take and subscribe an oath or affirma¬
tion, before some officer authorized to administer oaths, in the form
required by section one of article thirteen of the constitution of
this state, which oath shall be forthwith filed in the office of the
clerk of the supreme court in the judicial district in which said lands
are situated. It shall be the duty of the said commissioners, after
having viewed the said lands, tenements, hereditaments and prem¬
ises required for public use and purposes, as above set forth, to
make a just and equitable estimate of the loss and damage to the
respective owners, lessees, parties and persons respectively entitled
to or interested in the said lands, tenements, hereditaments and
premises, and to make report thereof to the said supreme court with
due diligence.

Reports of commissioners of estimate; presentation, thereof to the court;
when title to vest in city.
§ 1438. In each and all and every case when the owners, or
parties interested, or their respective estates and interests are
unknown, or not fully known, to the said commissioners it shall be
sufficient for them to estimate and set forth and state in their said