receive therefor. The compensation awarded to any occupant or tenant aforesaid shall be deducted from the damages awarded to the owner or person interested in the land or right or easement therein desired, to which the right of such occupant or tenant exists. In estimating the damages sustained or to be sustained by any owner, person interested, occupant or tenant, aforesaid, the commissioners shall take into consideration, the benefits, if any, which said improvement will be to the other land owned by him, or in which he is interested, and deduct the same from his damages. And if such benefit shall exceed the damages, the same shall be so specified in their report.

$ 85. The said commissioners shall as soon as convenient, make their report under their hands, or a majority of them, to the common council of said city and file the same together with the evidence and their proceeding taken in the office of the city clerk; in which report they shall describe with all practicable certainty the several pieces or parcels of land, and the premises or rights and easements therein to be taken for such improvement, and the names and residences of the owner or owners thereof, respectively, and the rights of such owner or owners as far as can be ascertained, and the amount of damages or compensation, if any, which should be paid to each of said. owners and persons interested therein, and occupants and tenants. They shall also state in their said report what the whole expense will amount to, including the costs and disbursements of the proceedings, and whether any, and if any, what part thereof ought to be borne by the city at large, and whether any, and if any, what real estate would be benefited by the improvement requiring the appropriation of said lands, premises, rights and easements, specifying the same in parcels and describing the same with the names of the owners, if they can be ascertained, and the proportion and amount of benefits which each parcel would receive. The commissioners shall each be entitled to the sum of three dollars as their compensation for each day on which they are necessarily employed, in addition to all necessary expenses. They shall be entitled to the services of a clerk or stenographer in taking the minutes of their proceedings, who shall receive therefor a reasonable compensation.

§ 86. Upon the filing of such report, the common council shall cause to be published in one of the daily newspapers of the city, a notice that the same is on file with the clerk, and specifying therein the names of the persons and corporations, if known,

to whom damages have been awarded, and the amount awarded to each, also the names of the persons and corporations, if known, whose property have been charged with benefits and the amount to be assessed against each. The common council shall specify in said notice a time not less than six days after the first publication of such notice when it will act upon said report. At the time assigned, or at such time as the hearing may be adjourned to, it shall hear the allegations of all persons interested, and may take proof in relation thereto, from time to time, and shall confirm the report or may set the same aside, and refer the matter to the same or new commissioners to be appointed by the court as before, who shall thereupon proceed as hereinbefore provided. But the common council may set aside said report and abandon said improvement at any stage of the proceedings before the final confirmation of the report.

§ 87. If the report of the commissioners shall be confirmed, the common council shall make an assessment, assessing upon the several parcels of land described in said report, the sum or sums which, as stated in said report, said parcels are or will be benefited by such improvement, respectively. Said parcels of land so assessed shall be described in said assessments as they are described in the report. The assessment shall be made to resemble in form as near as practicable, the city tax assessment roll, and shall be provided with a column in which payments can be entered by the chamberlain. The assessments so made shall be entered in the minutes of the common council, and a copy thereof certified by the clerk, under the seal of the city, shall be delivered to the chamberlain. The assessment so entered or the copy thereof, delivered to the chamberlain, shail be evidence in all courts and places of the assessments therein specified. And all sums so assessed shall be liens on the real estate on which they are so assessed from the time such assessments are made, the same as other assessments made pursuant to the provisions of this act.

§ 88. On receiving such copy of an assessment roll the chamberlain shall, without delay, cause notice to be published in the official newspaper of the city, once each week for three weeks, that such assessment has been made and that a copy thereof has been delivered to him and is in his office, stating the day when the same was delivered to him, and stating also that the sums therein assessed may be paid to him within thirty days after the first publication of said notice.

So in original.

89. In case said assessments, or any of said assessments, shall not be paid to the chamberlain within said thirty days, the common council may collect the same with interest at the rate of seven per centum after the expiration of said thirty days, together with the costs and expenses of collection, by action or by warrant, or sale of the real estate so assessed, in the same manner as other assessments and taxes are allowed to be collected by the provisions of this act, and all the provisions of this act for the collection of taxes shall apply to the collection and proceedings for the collection of such assessments, and the interest and expenses of collection which shall not have been paid to the chamberlain within said thirty days, as far as the same can be made applicable.

§ 90. In case it shall appear by the report of the commissioners on which the assessment is based, that any portion of the expense of such improvement should be borne by the city, the same shall be paid from the sum or fund raised for highway purposes for the current year, or from the sum raised for contingent and other expenses, as the common council shall deem best. If there shall not be sufficient money on hand not otherwise appropriated or needed to pay the same, said sum may be assessed, levied and raised by a special tax, as hereinbefore provided in this act.

§ 91. In case the sum raised for any public improvement by assessment (not by a general tax or by the city at large), shall exceed the cost of the same, such excess shall be refunded in proportion to the amount paid by each.

§ 92. If the report of the commissioners, as herein provided, is not appealed from in thirty days, as hereinafter provided, or whenever such report is finally confirmed, the common council may take the lands and premises and rights and easements specified in the report of such commissioners as necessary for such improvement on paying the amount of damages or compensation awarded to the owners or the occupants thereof in such report, less the amount of any assessment made against such owner or occupant for any part of the expenses of such improvements, when such assessment has been made or by depositing the same in some bank in the city of Elmira for his or her use, and subject to his or her order, less such assessment, if any, as aforesaid, and thereupon the title to said lands, premises, rights and easements therein so taken shall become vested in said city free from any and all liens and encumbrances of every kind and nature. But no real estate shall be taken or appropriated for the opening, widening or altering of any street, lane, alley or highway in the

city, or for any other corporate purpose mentioned in this act without the leave or consent of the owner or owners until the compensation reported by the commissioners to be proper be paid as above provided. Nor shall the city become obligated to take any such lands, tenements, rights or easements, nor to pay or deposit such damages therefor, nor shall the owners, occupants or other persons having any liens thereupon, acquire any right to such damages nor to be paid therefor until the final confirmation of the report of the commissioners as herein provided. Upon the final confirmation of the commissioners' report, the common council shall direct that a copy of the said report, exclusive of the evidence be recorded at length in the office of the clerk of the county of Chemung.

$93. Any person considering himself aggrieved by any part of such report or assessment may, within thirty days after such confirmation, serve upon the mayor of said city a notice of appeal to the supreme court from the report and determination of said commissioners, and shall accompany such notice with a bond executed by two or more sureties to be approved by the mayor of said city, or the county judge of Chemung county, in the penalty of five hundred dollars, and file the same with the city clerk, conditioned for the diligent prosecution of the said appeal and for the payment of all costs and charges which may be incurred by the said city in resisting the same and defending the said report in case the same shall be confirmed. A copy of such notice shall also be served within the same time upon the city clerk of said city.

$94. The giving of such notice and the giving of such bond shall suspend all further proceedings by the common council in relation to the taking of the lands and tenements which shall be the subject of such notice until decision therein as hereinafter provided.

95. The city clerk shall, forthwith, after service of such notice upon him, certify to said supreme court a copy of said report of said commissioners with the proceedings and evidence had before them, filed with him by said commissioners. The copy of such report, proceedings and evidence shall be furnished the said clerk for his certificate by the appellant, and another copy so certified by said clerk be served by the appellant upon the city attorney within ten days after such appeal shall have been taken.

§ 96. At any special term of the supreme court held in the sixth judicial district the said appeal may be brought to hearing

before said court upon eight days notice given to or by said appellant.

§ 97. The said court shall consider the said appeal and examine all questions of law or fact that may be involved therein and shall give the same a preference over other cases and shall confirm, modify or annul said report as the said court shall deem just. In case of annulling said report the court may direct a rehearing before the same or other commissioners to be appointed by it, and in such case the same proceedings shall be had on such rehearing and for the examination, correction and review of any subsequent report as herein provided. The said court may direct that any other party beside said appellant and said city be heard before the decision of such appeal, when it shall appear that such party has any interest to be affected by the determination of said court. The decision of the court, together with a copy of the report and proceedings certified to the court, shall be forthwith filed in the office of the clerk of Chemung county.

§ 98. Either party affected by the order of said special term may appeal therefrom to the appellate division of said court within ten days after notice of such order, by serving the notice of appeal in the usual manner of serving notices of appeal in said court, and if a party, other than the city, by giving a bond, conditioned and approved as is provided in section ninety-three of this act. The said appeal shall be heard by the appellate division in the same manner as provided in the next preceding section and the decision of said appellate division shall be final and conclusive.

99. In case the said report so made shall be confirmed on appeal the appellant and obligors in the bond given to the city, as hereinbefore provided, shall be liable to pay to the said city the same costs and disbursements as are allowed upon appeal in civil actions made upon a case and exceptions to be adjusted by the clerk of Chemung county. And in case the said report shall be annulled the appellant shall be entitled to the same costs besides his disbursements as are allowed the city. And in case the said report shall be corrected or modified the supreme court shall determine, under the circumstances of the case, whether the appellant shall be entitled to his costs and disbursements; and if the same are awarded to such appellant they shall be the same as allowed the said city. The costs and disbursements of the appellant, on adjustment by said clerk, shall be paid by the common council of said city as part of the contingent expenses thereof.