Section 434. Contracts for publication of reports

1. The printing and
  publication of the court of  appeals  reports,  the  appellate  division
  reports,  the  miscellaneous  reports  and  the combined official series
  shall be done under contract as hereinafter provided.
    2. Said contract shall be let and said publication shall  be  made  by
  and under the direction of the state reporter.
    3.  In  each year immediately preceding the expiration of the contract
  to be let as hereinafter provided, the state reporter shall give  notice
  that  a contract will be let for said printing and publication, together
  with a reference to this section, and that on or before the first day of
  September in such year,  he  will  receive  sealed  proposals  for  such
  contract. Such notice shall be given by publication thereof once in each
  of  the  first  weeks  of  June,  July  and  August,  respectively, in a
  newspaper to be designated by the state reporter, published in  each  of
  the  following  cities, namely: New York, Albany, Rochester and Buffalo;
  such newspapers to be so designated as shall  be  most  likely  to  give
  notice to the public of such letting; the expense of such publication to
  be  paid  by  the  state  treasurer from the general funds of the state,
  after the same shall have been approved in writing by the state reporter
  and audited according to law.
    4. Said contract shall be let to the person who will publish and  sell
  said reports and said combined official series, together with the weekly
  advance  sheets  thereof, and furnish the required copies to the various
  state and county officials, on terms deemed by said state reporter  most
  advantageous to the public and the state, regard being had to the proper
  execution  of  the work. Said contract shall be let not earlier than the
  sixteenth of October, nor later than the  first  of  November,  in  such
  years.
    5.  (a)  Said  contract  shall  require  the contractor to continue to
  publish such reports and the  combined  official  series  thereof  (with
  weekly  advance  sheets  thereof to be published as early as practicable
  after the decisions of said courts shall be handed down), and shall  fix
  the  prices  at which said publications and each of them, in the various
  styles of binding and weights and quality of paper, and  the  sizes  and
  the  number of pages of each, shall be delivered within the state of New
  York.
    (b) Said contract also shall provide that the contractor  may  produce
  and  market such reports and the combined official series thereof in any
  medium or format, besides bound  volumes  and  printed  advance  sheets,
  including  but  not  limited to microfiche, ultrafiche, on-line computer
  retrieval data base, and CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory), subject
  to prior approval by the state reporter and the chief judge of the court
  of appeals.
    6. Said contract shall require the contractor  to  furnish  the  state
  library  with  fifty-eight  copies of the court of appeals and appellate
  division reports and three copies of the miscellaneous reports, and also
  to furnish copies of each of said publications as follows: One  of  each
  to  the  clerk of each county, for the use of the county; one of each to
  the attorney general, for the use of his office;  one  of  each  to  the
  state  comptroller,  for the use of his office; one of each to the clerk
  of the court of appeals, for the use of that court, and one of  each  to
  each  judge  or justice of a court of record, for the use of his office;
  and one of each to the various public law libraries in  the  state,  and
  the expense of delivery thereof shall be borne by the state.
    7.  Publication under said contract shall commence on the first day of
  January, nineteen  hundred  and  forty-one,  and  shall  continue  until
  December  thirty-first,  nineteen  hundred  and  forty-five (unless said

  contract is previously annulled by the state reporter); thereafter  said
  contracts shall be made for the period of five years each.
    8.  Said  contractor  shall  agree  that  he  will  promptly after the
  publication of each volume of said reports, and  constantly  thereafter,
  keep  the  same  on  hand for open and public sale, and will deliver the
  same, complete, bound and lettered, to any and to all  persons  desiring
  to purchase, at a price for each which shall be fixed by said contract.
    9.  Said  contract  shall  contain  such  other  provisions  as in the
  judgment of the  state  reporter  may  be  necessary  to  safeguard  the
  interests  of  the  state and of the public, and shall be subject to the
  approval of the chief judge of the court of appeals.  The  form  of  the
  proposed  contract complete as to all its terms, except the prices to be
  paid the contractor, shall be prepared by  the  state  reporter  and  be
  placed  on  file  in the office of the law reporting bureau on or before
  the day of the first publication of notice under  subdivision  three  of
  this section.
    10.  To  every  proposal there shall be annexed a bond executed by the
  proposed  contractor,  with  sureties  conditioned  for   the   faithful
  performance  of  said contract, which bond shall be approved as to form,
  manner of execution, amount and sufficiency of sureties,  by  the  chief
  judge of the court of appeals.
    11.  The  right to reject any and every proposal if deemed unfavorable
  or disadvantageous is reserved to the  state  reporter,  and  the  state
  reporter may readvertise until bids advantageous to the state and to the
  public have been secured.
    12.  If  the  state  reporter  determines that a contract has not been
  faithfully kept and performed by the  contractor,  or  whenever  in  the
  judgment  of  the  state reporter the public interest may so require, of
  which the state reporter shall be exclusive judge and his decision shall
  be final, the state reporter may, by an instrument in writing signed  by
  him and approved by the chief judge of the court of appeals and filed in
  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  modify said contract in the
  interest of justice, or annul said contract from  a  time  specified  in
  said  instrument  and  thereupon  immediately  enter into a new contract
  likewise to be approved by the chief judge of the court of appeals.
    13. Neither the state reporter nor any of his deputies nor any of  the
  employees  of the law reporting bureau shall have any pecuniary interest
  in said reports or said contracts.
    14. Nothing provided in this article shall affect  the  obligation  of
  any  contracts  for  the  printing and publication of the aforementioned
  reports, or any of them,  in  force  on  July  first,  nineteen  hundred
  thirty-eight;  but  the  state reporter shall succeed to all the powers,
  rights and interests with respect to said contracts,  possessed  by  the
  previous official reporters or board of reporters by whom said contracts
  were let.