N.Y. RAT Law § 68

§ 68. Moneys of persons under disability; moneys paid to wrong\npersons. Whenever the owner or any person interested in any property\ntaken or affected in such proceedings or in whose favor any such sum or\ncompensation shall be determined by the final decree of the court is\nunder legal disability or absent from such city, and when the name of\nthe owner or person interested in the property shall not be set forth or\nmentioned in the final decree, or when the owner or person interested,\nalthough named in the decree, cannot upon diligent inquiry be found, or\nwhere there are adverse or conflicting claims to the money awarded as\ncompensation, the city shall pay such award into court to be secured,\ndisposed of, invested and paid out as the court shall direct, and such\npayment shall be as valid and effectual in all respects as if made to\nthe person entitled thereto. And in default of such payment into court,\nthe city shall be and remain liable for such award with lawful interest\nthereon from the date of the entry of the order granting the application\nto condemn. Where an award shall be paid to a person not entitled\nthereto, the person to whom it ought to have been paid may sue for and\nrecover the same, with lawful interest and costs of suit, as so much\nmoney had and received to his use by the person to whom the same shall\nhave been so paid. Payment of an award to the person named in the final\ndecree of the court as the owner thereof or person entitled thereto, if\nnot under legal disability, in the absence of notice in writing to the\ncomptroller of adverse claims thereto, shall protect the city.\n