ors; if the owner or owners be unknown to the assessors, or if they be non-residents and the ownership is unknown to the assessors, then the assessment may be designated unknown, and there shall be stated the number of the lot and the block, if subdivided into lots and blocks and so designated upon the city map last adopted by the common council, or the number of the lot or farm lot, if not so subdivided into blocks and lots and so designated, and also the street and number of any building thereon; but if the land be vacant or the building thereon be not numbered, then the name of the street on which it fronts and a brief description of the premises shall be given. No assessment hereafter made in said city shall be held to be invalid because the same may be made out in terms against owner or owners unknown or the estate of a deceased person (naming such person) or the executor, administrator, heirs or devisees of a deceased person (naming such person), or any of them or against a company or a firm name, or against a person in whom is the record title, though not the actual title of the property, or for any cause arising through ignorance or mistake as to the names of the owner or owners of the property assessed, whether individually or a corporation, provided such property is sufficiently described on the assessment rolls to reasonably identify and indicate to a person familiar with the same the particular property which it was intended to assess. Every assessment roll shall be considered as referring to the last adopted map, if there be one, unless it be otherwise stated therein. 888. Assessment not invalidated by irregularities. No assessment or tax shall be vacated, set aside, canceled, annulled, reviewed or otherwise questioned or affected by reason of any error, omission, irregularity or defect, not actually fraudulent, in any of the steps or proceedings required to be had or taken as preliminary to, or in the making of, the assessment, or in the levying or collection of the tax, nor in relation to or in connection with any proposal, designation of materials, contract, work or improvement for or on account of which such assessment was made or tax imposed. But all property shall be liable to assessment and all assessments shall be valid and of full force and effect notwithstanding any such error, omission, irregularity or defect. 889. Right to review assessment or tax for local improvement limited. No action or proceeding to set aside, vacate, cancel or annul any assessment or tax for a local improvement shall be maintained, except for total want of jurisdiction to levy and assess the same on the part of the officers, board or body authorized by law to make such levy or assessment or to order the improvement on account of which the levy or assessment was made. No action or proceeding shall be maintained to modify or reduce any such assessment or tax except for fraud or substantial error by reason of which the amount of such tax or assessment is in excess of the amount which should have been lawfully levied or assessed. § 90. Procedure on review. No action or proceeding shall be maintained to set aside, vacate, cancel, annul, review, reduce or otherwise question, test or affect the legality or validity of any assessment or tax for a local improvement, except in the form and manner and by the proceedings herein provided. If, in the proceedings relative to an assessment or tax, entire absence of jurisdiction on the part of the officers, board or body authorized by law to levy or assess the same or to order the improvement on account of which the assessment was made or tax imposed, is alleged to have existed, or in case any fraud or substantial error, other than the errors or irregularities specified in the preceding section, by reason of which substantial damages have been sustained, are alleged to have existed or to have been committed, any party or parties aggrieved thereby, who shall have filed objections thereto within the time and in the manner specified by law therefor, may apply to the supreme court at any special term thereof, held within the judicial district in which the city is situated, for an order vacating or modifying such assessment as to the lands in which he or they have an interest, upon the grounds in said objections specified, and no other, and upon due notice of such application to the corporation counsel. Each such application shall be made within twenty days after the confirmation of the assessment. Thereupon such court may proceed to hear the proofs and allegations of the parties and determine the same, or may appoint a referee to take the proof and report thereon, or to hear, try and determine the same. If it shall be determined in such proceeding that the officers, board or body had no jurisdiction to make the levy or assessment complained of or to order the improvement, the court may order such assessment or tax vacated. If it shall be determined therein that any such fraud or substantial error has been committed and that the party or parties applying for such relief, have suffered substantial dam ages by reason thereof, the court may order that the assessment or tax be modified as to such party or parties, and as so modified that it be confirmed. A like application may be made to secure a modification or reduction of any such assessment or tax on account of fraud or such substantial error occurring in the performance of the work of the improvement on account of which such assessment or tax is made or levied, and it shall be determined in like manner. If, in any such proceeding, it shall be determined that such fraud or substantial error has been committed, by reason of which any such assessment or tax upon the lands of any such aggrieved party has been unlawfully increased, the court may order that such assessment or tax be modified by deducting therefrom such amount as is in the same proportion to such assessment or tax as the whole amount of such unlawful increase is to the whole amount of the assessment or tax for the improvement. An order so made in any such proceeding shall be entered in the clerk's office of the county in which the city is situated, and shall have the same force and effect as a judgment. The court may, during the pendency of any such proceeding, stay the collection of any assessment or tax involved therein as against the parties thereto. Costs and disbursements of Costs and disbursements of any such proceeding may be allowed in the discretion of the court. No appeal shall be allowed or taken from the order made in any such proceeding, but the determination so made therein shall be final and conclusive upon all parties thereto. No assessment or tax shall be modified otherwise than to reduce it to the extent that the same may be shown by the parties complaining thereof to have been in fact increased in dollars and cents by reason of such fraud or substantial error. In no event shall that proportion of any such assessment which is the equivalent of the fair value or fair cost of the improvement be disturbed for any cause. No money paid on account of any assessment or tax shall be recovered for any cause, except the amount of the excess of such assessment or tax over and above the fair value and cost of the improvement. In case of the failure of any assessment or tax for any cause, the comptroller shall certify such fact to the common council and it shall be its duty to forthwith cause the same to be relevied and reassessed in a proper manner. - § 91. Consolidation of separate proceedings. Two or more persons may unite in commencing and prosecuting the proceedings to vacate or modify assessments; and when two or more persons have commenced separate proceedings to vacate or modify assessments for the same improvement, the court before whom the same are commenced or pending, or a judge thereof at special term or chambers may, by order, upon due application and notice, consolidate such separate proceedings into one proceeding. § 92. State lands. Nothing herein contained shall affect any assessment upon lands owned by the state nor be deemed to repeal or modify any of the provisions of section twenty of the public lands law. § 93. Map or description to be prepared by city engineer.— The common council may, from time to time, direct the city engineer to prepare and furnish to the board of assessors, and file the same with the city clerk, for their use, a map or brief description of any real estate in the city, or to prepare a roll or rolls of any real estate in the city for the board of assessors, exclusive of valuation. 94. Deeds, et cetera, to be presented; maps to be filed. For the purpose of enabling the said board of assessors to prepare and perpetuate a more perfect record of the names of owners and claimants of real property in said city, every deed of conveyance of lands in said city, or other instrument in writing, whereby the ownership of said lands shall be changed, made and executed after this act takes effect, shall, before the same be received for record by the county clerk of Broome county, be presented at the office of said board of assessors, who shall, without fee, note the said transfer of title upon their records, and also note the fact of such presentation upon such deed. And every map, plot or subdivision map or plot of lands within the city, showing a subdivision of such lands into blocks or lots shall, before it shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county of Broome, or in any city office, be presented to said assessors and a copy thereof filed in the office of the board of assessors, and the said original map or plot shall be stamped by said assessors. If any such map or plot which has not been so stamped shall be placed on file by any officer he shall forfeit to the city of Binghamton ten dollars, to be sued for in the name of the city in any court of competent jurisdiction. 8 95. Assessment of omitted real estate; reassessments. If any taxable real estate has been omitted in any of the general tax rolls for any of the three preceding years, the board of assessors may insert, or cause to be inserted, in the roll for the current year, in addition to its share of the tax for such year, the propor tion of the tax it should have borne in such preceding years, or either thereof, stating such additional taxes separately, and such additions shall be collected as part of the tax for the current year; and in case any taxes levied on any real estate in said city shall remain unpaid or uncollected for any year, said assessors are hereby empowered to reassess such real estate, and the same shall be collected as part of the tax of the current year, and in the same manner. But such taxes shall not be reassessed for a longer period than six years from the time they became due and payable. § 96. Correction of errors in assessment rolls; reassessment of void tax. Whenever there is a manifest error in copying any assessment rolls, or levying or extending any tax or assessment, the common council may, at any time within three months after the completion of said assessment rolls, and upon ten days written notice to the person interested, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected, correct, cancel, remit or add to the same, but shall have no power to alter any valuation made by the assessors; nor shall such amended assessment, if greater than the original assessment, be a lien on the real estate for the amount added, as against purchasers or mortgagees in good faith. In case any tax or assessment shall be void, or shall have failed for want of jurisdiction, or for any irregularity in the levying or assessing thereof, it shall be the duty of the common council to cause the same to be reassessed in a proper manner; if any person shall have paid on the former assessment, the amount so paid shall be credited on the new assessment, and in case the payment exceed the amount re assessed, the surplus shall be refunded. The common council may, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected, renew warrant for the collection of any assessment or tax for a term not exceeding thirty days. any § 97. Registry of unoccupied premises. The owners of unoccupied lots or premises in the city may cause a true description of the same to be registered in a book kept by the city clerk for that purpose, with the name of the owner, if a resident of the city, and if not with the name of any resident of the city as an agent for said property; and in the assessment of real estate for local or general taxation, all papers or notices required to be served on the owners or resident occupants of lots, shall be served on such owner or agent, with the same effect as if such lots were occupied. § 98. Levy and collection of taxes. All sums adopted by the common council in the tax budget and as provided in section |