N.Y. RPA Law § 351

§ 351. Evidence as to common lands in the city of New York. In any\naction or special proceeding involving a question as to the situs of any\nlot of the common lands, so-called, in the city of New York, the court\nmay, upon the offer of any party, receive in evidence any evidence which\nwas received in the action heretofore prosecuted in the superior court\nof the city of New York, by Russell D. Miner, and continued by the\npersonal representatives of the same Russell D. Miner, deceased, against\nthe city of New York, or in the action in such court between certain\nheirs at law of the same Russell D. Miner, deceased, and Jacob Scholle\nand others, and also the deposition of Isaac T. Ludlam, deceased,\nverified before E. Henry Lacombe, as referee, upon the fourteenth day of\nNovember, eighteen hundred seventy-eight, in an action in such court by\nHester Sherman and others, against Thomas Kane and others; provided that\nthe testimony of a witness shall not be admissible, under the provisions\nof this section until the court is satisfied that such witness has\nheretofore died; and provided further, that no provision of this section\nshall give to any documentary evidence introduced in connection with any\nformer testimony any greater or different effect than may be due to it\nby reason of the testimony relative thereto. Such evidence may be\nintroduced in any mode established by the practice of the courts for the\nintroduction of testimony given upon a former trial, by a witness who\nhas since died, or by reading from the printed cases on appeal,\nheretofore filed in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the\ncity of New York.\n