Section 5-387. Commissioners of appraisal; powers and proceedings thereof; provisions for filling of vacancies

a. Any one of such commissioners of  appraisal may issue subpoenas and administer  oaths  to  witnesses;  and
  they  or  any one of them, in the absence of the others, may adjourn the
  proceedings from time to  time  in  their  discretion;  but  they  shall
  continue  to  meet  from  time  to  time as may be necessary, within the
  judicial district where the lands or any part thereof may be located, to
  hear, consider and determine upon all claims which may be  presented  to
  them  under  the provisions of this subchapter. Within thirty days after
  the commissioners have been appointed and have qualified, the city shall
  furnish the commission with a list of the claims that  have  been  filed
  and are to be determined and the commissioners shall have full power and
  authority  to prepare a calendar of all such claims and to determine the
  order and priority of the hearing  of  such  claims;  to  set  down  the
  hearing  of any such claim for a day certain; and to order an inquest in
  or a dismissal of any claim for failure of a party to appear at the time
  designated for  the  hearing  thereof  unless  the  commissioners  shall
  determine  that  a reasonable excuse for such failure exists. They shall
  view the real estate laid down on the maps and shall hear the proofs and
  allegations of any owner, lessee, or other person in any way entitled to
  or interested in such real estate or any part  or  parcel  thereof,  and
  also  such  proofs  and  allegations  as may be offered on behalf of the
  city. They shall rule upon motions and  objections  made  in  connection
  with  the admission or exculsion of testimony or evidence in any hearing
  before the commissioners and shall make findings upon which their awards
  are made and separate findings upon which the fees  and  allowances  are
  based. They shall reduce the testimony taken before them to writing, and
  after  the  testimony  is closed, they or a majority of them, all having
  considered the same, and having an  opportunity  to  be  present,  shall
  without   unnecessary  delay,  ascertain  and  determine  the  just  and
  equitable compensation which ought justly to be made by the city to  the
  owners  or  the  persons  interested  in  the  real  estate sought to be
  acquired or affected by such proceedings, including just  and  equitable
  compensation  to  the  owner  of  any leasehold taken or affected in the
  proceeding. Such commissioners of appraisal shall make reports of  their
  proceedings  to  the supreme court as in the next section provided, with
  the minutes of the testimony taken by them and the findings of fact made
  by them, and they shall be entitled to the payments hereinafter provided
  for their services and expenses to be paid  from  the  fund  hereinafter
  provided.
    b.  In  case of the death, resignation, refusal or neglect to serve of
  any or all of such commissioners of appraisal, the  corporation  counsel
  shall  upon  ten  days'  notice  to  be  given  by  advertisement in the
  newspapers designated as hereinbefore provided,  apply  to  the  supreme
  court  at a special term thereof, to be held in the judicial district in
  which the land or any part  thereof  affected  by  the  proceedings,  is
  situated,  for  the appointment of one or more commissioners to fill the
  vacancy or vacancies so occasioned.
    c. In the event that the corporation counsel shall  fail,  neglect  or
  refuse  to  make  such  application  within  thirty  days after any such
  vacancy  shall  have  occurred  as  hereinabove  provided,  any   person
  interested   in   the   proceeding   may   similarly  apply  after  such
  advertisement for the filling of any vacancy. The city of New York shall
  be liable for the reasonable expenses  of  such  advertisement  together
  with ten dollars costs of motion in the event of any such application by
  any such interested person.