32:1-35.15. Procedure in condemnation proceedings; payment of damages; transfer or pledge of award; abandonment; title

The Port Authority may exercise the right of eminent domain or condemnation to acquire real property for air terminal purposes as set forth in this section:

(a) As used in this section, unless otherwise expressly stated or unless context or subject matter otherwise requires the following terms shall mean:

(1) "Days" : Calendar days exclusive of Sundays and full legal holidays.

(2) "Owner" : A person having an estate, interest or easement in the real property being acquired or a lien, charge or encumbrance thereon.

(b) Whenever the Port Authority shall determine that it is necessary to acquire real property for air terminal purposes for the public use by the exercise of the right of eminent domain or condemnation, it shall prepare three similar surveys, diagrams, maps, plans or profiles of the real property being acquired, stating thereon that the Port Authority has determined that it is necessary to acquire said property, and the amount or valuation at which each parcel of real property to be acquired has been assessed for purposes of taxation on the tax rolls for each of the three years preceding, and if the interest being taken shall be less than the fee, the estimated value of such interest; one of such surveys, diagrams, maps, plans or profiles shall be filed in the office of the secretary of the Port Authority, the second shall be filed in the office in which instruments affecting real property are required to be recorded, in the county in which such real property is situated, and the third copy shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court. An action for the condemnation of such real property may be instituted in the Superior Court by the Port Authority against the owners thereof, and the court may proceed in the action in a summary manner. A notice of the pendency of the action shall be filed and recorded as provided in section 20:1-4 of Title 20, Eminent Domain, and with like effect, except that the notice shall name and be directed only to the owners of such real property or such of them as may be known to the Port Authority.

It shall be lawful for the duly authorized agents of the Port Authority, and all persons acting under its authority and by its direction, to enter in the daytime into and upon such real property which it shall be necessary so to enter, for the purpose of making such surveys, diagrams, maps or plans, or for the purpose of making such soundings or borings as the Port Authority may deem necessary.

(c) Whenever any land or other property taken for public use shall lie or be in two or more counties, all reports and other papers required to be filed in a county clerk's office shall be filed in the clerk's office of the county in which the greater part in value of the land or other property is situate and a certified copy thereof shall be filed and recorded in the clerk's office of the other county or counties.

(d) Process in the action for condemnation shall be served by the publication of a notice on one day in each of four successive weeks in a newspaper published and of general circulation in the county in which the real property to be acquired is located. The notice need not state the names of the owners of such real property, but it shall state that an action has been commenced to have determined by the Superior Court of New Jersey the compensation which should justly be made to the respective owners of the real property proposed to be taken. Such notice shall indicate the real property to be taken by a general description and by reference to the map on file in the office of the Port Authority, in the office in which instruments affecting real property are required to be recorded, and in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court.

(e) In addition to the provisions contained in subdivision (d) above, process shall be served upon the owners of all property affected by the action, by mailing the same to such owners at the address registered or filed with the collector of taxes for the purpose of forwarding to them bills for taxes or assessments. Failure to comply with the directions contained in this subdivision shall not invalidate or affect the action.

(f) The Port Authority shall, within ten days after the filing of the complaint and the entry of the order to show cause constituting the process in the action, cause a certified copy of the complaint and order to be recorded in the office wherein instruments affecting real property are required to be recorded, in every county in which any part of the real property affected is situated, in the same manner as deeds are recorded, and the register of deeds or county clerk with whom such certified copies shall be recorded shall index the same in the same manner as recorded deeds are indexed.

(g) The Port Authority after the entry of such order to show cause, shall cause to be published on one day in each of four successive weeks in a newspaper published and of general circulation in the county in which the real property to be acquired is located, a notice containing a general description of the real property to be acquired, a statement that such order has been filed and requiring that all owners of such real property shall, on or before such date as may be specified in the order to show cause, serve upon the Port Authority a copy of a written claim or demand, duly verified, setting forth the real property owned by the claimant, his post-office address, and the nature of his interest in said real property. The claimant shall within the same time file in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court the original of such verified claim.

(h) Proof of title to the real property to be acquired, where the same is undisputed, together with proof of liens or encumbrances thereon, shall be submitted by the claimant to the Port Authority. The Port Authority shall serve upon all parties or their attorneys who have served upon it copies of their verified claims, a notice of the time and place at which it will receive such proof of title. Where the title of the claimant is disputed, the action to determine the value of the property to be taken shall continue in the same manner as it would if there were no such dispute, and the award, if any, shall, with leave of court, be paid into the Superior Court, and shall there be distributed, according to law, on the application of any person interested therein.

(i) After all parties who have filed verified claims, as provided in subdivision (g) hereof, have proved their titles, or have failed to do so after being notified by the Port Authority of the time and place where such proof of title would be received, the Port Authority shall bring on before the Superior Court, as the court may direct, a hearing upon the claims so filed, or in case no claims are filed, to fix the amount to be paid for such lands.

The court shall determine without a jury, and with or without a view of the real property being acquired, the compensation which should justly be made by the Port Authority to the respective owners of such real property, and judgment shall be entered in the amount so determined.

(j) No evidence shall be admitted in the action, as against an owner of real property being acquired, of an offer made by or on behalf of such owner for the sale of his property or any part thereof to the Port Authority, or for the sale or assignment of any right and title to the award or awards, or any part thereof, to be made for such property or any part thereof, in the action. Nor shall any evidence be received, as against the Port Authority, of any offer made to such owner, by or on its behalf, for the purchase of such property or any part thereof or for the purchase of the award or awards or any part thereof, to be made for such property, or any part thereof, in the proceeding.

(k) The Port Authority shall furnish to the court such surveys, diagrams, maps, plans and profiles as the court shall require to enable the court to hear and determine the claims of the owners of the real property affected by the action. Such surveys, diagrams, maps, plans and profiles shall distinctly indicate by separate numbers the names of the claimants to, or of the owners of the respective parcels of real property to be taken in such proceeding, so far as the same are known, and shall also specify in figures with sufficient accuracy the dimensions and bounds of such real property. Where possible, such real property shall be designated on such maps by the same ward or block and lot numbers or other designations as shall be used to designate such real property on the tax books and tax maps of the taxing agency in which it is located. The court may require the Port Authority to furnish such other surveys, diagrams, maps, plans and profiles and such other information as shall aid and assist the court in the action.

(l) The Port Authority, or any party or person affected by the action and aggrieved by the judgment made therein as to awards may appeal. If the judgment entered in the action to condemn should be reversed, such reversal shall not divest the Port Authority of title to the real property thereby affected.

(m) All damages awarded by the court, with interest thereon from the date of the entry of the judgment, or if the title to the real property acquired shall have vested in the Port Authority prior thereto, from the date of such vesting, shall be paid by the Port Authority to the respective owners to whom the damages were awarded in the judgment, within two calendar months after the entry of the judgment, without further order of the court, or application for such payment by said owners. Property owners appearing in the action shall not be entitled to recover counsel fees, costs, disbursements or allowances. Any outstanding taxes, assessments or other liens shall be deducted from the amount of the award and no interest shall be paid by the Port Authority upon the sum or sums so deducted. Payment of an award to a person named in the judgment as the owner thereof, if not under legal disability, shall in the absence of notice in writing to the Port Authority of adverse claims thereto protect the Port Authority and shall be a full acquittance and release of all claims to said award.

In case there shall be a dispute as to title, or the party entitled to receive the amount assessed by the court shall refuse upon tender thereof to receive the same, or shall be out of the State or under any legal disability, or in case several parties being interested in the fund shall not agree as to the distribution thereof, or in case the lands or other property taken are encumbered by mortgage, judgment or other lien, or if for any other reason the Port Authority cannot safely pay the amount awarded to any person, in all such cases, with leave of court, the amount awarded may be paid into the Superior Court, and shall there be distributed according to law, on the application of any person interested therein.

(n) The Port Authority may pay to the person entitled to an award for real property acquired in an action, in advance of the final judgment, a sum to be determined by the Port Authority, not exceeding sixty per centum (60%) of the assessed value of the real property taken less the liens and encumbrances of record thereon; provided, that when the real property taken shall be less than the fee, then such sum shall not exceed sixty per centum (60%) of the amount estimated by the Port Authority to be the value of such interest, less the liens and encumbrances thereon. If the Port Authority shall make a partial payment in advance either pursuant to this subsection or pursuant to section nine hereof, interest on the sum so paid in advance shall cease to run on and after a date five days after such person shall have been notified by mail or otherwise that the Port Authority is ready to pay the same. In case the person entitled to an award at the date of the vesting of title to the real property in the Port Authority shall have transferred or assigned his claim, such transfer or assignment made by him, or by his successor in interest or legal representative, shall not become binding upon the Port Authority unless the instrument or instruments evidencing such transfer or assignment shall have been filed in the office of the Port Authority prior to any such advance payment. When any such advance payment shall have been made, the Port Authority, on paying the awards for the real property acquired, shall deduct from the total amount allowed as compensation the sum advanced plus interest thereon from the date of the payment of such advance to the date of the final judgment, and the balance shall be paid as hereinbefore provided in subdivision (m) hereof.

(o) In any action hereunder, in which title to the real property to be acquired shall have become vested in the Port Authority prior to the entry of final judgment, the Port Authority shall have power and is hereby authorized to purchase from the owners of such real property at the date of the vesting of title thereto, or their successors in interest or legal representatives, their right and title to the award or awards, or any part thereof, to be made in such action and to take an assignment thereof to the Port Authority.

(p) No pledge, sale, transfer or assignment of an award by the person entitled to receive the same by virtue of the judgment or by other order of the court, shall be valid unless the instrument evidencing such pledge, sale, transfer or assignment shall be acknowledged or proved as instruments are required to be acknowledged or proved for the recording of transfers of real property and shall be filed in the office of the Port of New York Authority. Every such instrument not so filed shall be void as against any subsequent pledgee or assignee in good faith and for a valuable consideration from the same pledgor or assignor, his heirs, administrators or assigns, of the same award or any portion thereof, the assignment of which is first duly filed in the office of the Port Authority. The Port Authority shall maintain in its office a record of all pledges or assignments filed with it under the provisions hereof.

(q) The Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority by resolution may abandon any action as to the whole or a part of the lands to be acquired in such action, at any time before title to the real property to be thereby acquired shall have vested in the Port Authority, and may cause new actions to be instituted for the condemnation of such real property. In case of such abandonment, however, the reasonable actual cash disbursements, necessarily incurred and made in good faith by any party interested, shall be paid by the Port Authority, after the same shall have been taxed by the Superior Court, upon notice of such taxation being previously given to the Port Authority, provided the application to have such disbursements taxed shall be made and presented to the court within one year after the adoption of the resolution of the board discontinuing the action in whole or in part. For the purposes of this section, the fair and reasonable value of the services of an attorney retained by any interested party to represent his interests in said action for condemnation whether on a contingent fee basis or otherwise, if such retainer be made in good faith, shall be deemed to be an actual cash disbursement necessarily incurred by such interested party and shall be taxable in the same manner as other disbursements. The amounts taxed as disbursements shall be due and payable thirty days after written demand for payment thereof shall have been filed with the Port Authority.

(r) The title to any piece or parcel of the real property, or any interest therein, authorized to be acquired hereunder shall be vested in the Port Authority upon the entry of the order to show cause constituting process in the action to condemn. The Port Authority, however, may direct that the title shall be vested in the Port Authority upon a specified date after the date of the entry of such order, or upon the date of the entry of the final judgment, but not later than the date of the entry of the final judgment. Upon the date when title to the real property shall have vested as herein provided, the Port Authority shall become and be seized in fee of or of an easement in, over, above, through, upon or under such real property or such other interest therein as may have been specified, the same to be held, appropriated, converted and used for the purposes for which the action was instituted. The Port Authority or any person acting under its authority shall immediately or at any time thereafter take possession of such property without action or other judicial proceedings.

(s) Where the whole of any lot or parcel of real property, under lease or other contract, shall be taken, all the covenants, contracts and engagements between landlord and tenant and other contracting parties touching the same or any part thereof, upon the vesting of title in the Port Authority, shall cease and determine and be absolutely discharged. Where a part only of any lot or parcel of real property so under lease or other contract shall be so taken all contracts and engagements respecting the same, upon such vesting of title, shall cease and determine and be absolutely discharged as to the part thereof so taken, but shall remain valid and obligatory as to the residue thereof. All tenants in possession of such premises at the time of the vesting of title thereto in the Port Authority shall become tenants at will of the Port Authority unless within ten days after the vesting of title they shall elect to vacate and give up their respective holdings.

L.1947, c. 43, p. 128, s. 15. Amended by L.1953, c. 31, p. 552, s. 1.