§ 11-2211 Proceedings to recover tax.
AC § 11-2211
a. Whenever any person shall fail to pay any tax, penalty or interest imposed by this chapter as herein provided, the corporation counsel, upon the request of the commissioner of motor vehicles or of the commissioner of finance if designated as his or her agent, shall bring or cause to be brought an action to enforce the payment of the same on behalf of the city of New York in any court of the state of New York or of any other state of the United States. However, if in his or her discretion the commissioner of motor vehicles, or the commissioner of finance if designated as his or her agent, believes that any such person subject to the provisions of this chapter is about to cease business, leave the state or remove or dissipate the assets out of which the tax or penalty might be satisfied, and that any such tax or penalty will not be paid when due, he or she may declare such tax or penalty to be immediately due and payable and may issue a warrant immediately. b. As an additional or alternate remedy, the commissioner of motor vehicles, or the commissioner of finance if designated as his or her agent, may issue a warrant, directed to the city sheriff commanding him or her to levy upon and sell the real and personal property of the person liable for the tax which may be found within the city, for the payment of the amount thereof, with any penalty and interest, and the cost of executing the warrant, and to return such warrant to the person who issued it and to pay to him or her the money collected by virtue thereof within sixty days after the receipt of such warrant. The city sheriff shall within five days after the receipt of the warrant file with the county clerk a copy thereof, and thereupon such clerk shall enter in the judgment docket the name of the person mentioned in the warrant and the amount of the tax, penalty and interest for which the warrant is issued and the date when such copy is filed. Thereupon the amount of such warrant so docketed shall become a lien upon the title to and the interest in real and personal property of the person against whom the warrant is issued. The city sheriff shall then proceed upon the warrant in the same manner, and with like effect, as that provided by law in respect to executions issued against property upon judgments of a court of record and for services in executing the warrant such sheriff shall be entitled to the same fees, which he or she may collect in the same manner. In the discretion of the commissioner of motor vehicles, or of the commissioner of finance if designated as his or her agent, a warrant of like terms, force and effect may be issued and directed to an officer or employee of the department of finance of the city, and in the execution thereof such officer or employee shall have all the powers conferred by law upon sheriffs, but shall be entitled to no fee or compensation in excess of the actual expenses paid in the performance of such duty. If a warrant is returned not satisfied in full, the commissioner of motor vehicles or the commissioner of finance, as the case may be, may from time to time issue new warrants and shall also have the same remedies to enforce the amount due thereunder as if he or she had recovered judgment therefor and execution thereon had been returned unsatisfied. c. The commissioner of finance, if he or she finds that the interests of the city will not thereby be jeopardized, and upon such conditions as the commissioner of finance may require, may release any property from the lien of any warrant or vacate such warrant for unpaid taxes, additions to tax, penalties and interest filed pursuant to subdivision b of this section, and such release or vacating of the warrant may be recorded in the office of any recording officer in which such warrant has been filed. The clerk shall thereupon cancel and discharge as of the original date of docketing the vacated warrant.
