N.Y. High. Law § 270
The town board of any town may audit as a town charge, in the same manner as other town charges are audited, any one claim not exceeding five hundred dollars, for damages to person or property, heretofore or hereafter sustained by reason of defective highways or bridges in the town, if in their judgment it be for the interest of the town so to do; but no claim shall be so audited unless it shall have been presented to the supervisor and town clerk of the town within ninety days after it accrued, nor if any action thereon shall be barred by the statute of limitations. The town board may also audit any unpaid judgment heretofore or hereafter recovered against a town superintendent for any such damages, if such town board shall be satisfied that he acted in good faith, and the defect causing such damage did not exist because of the negligence or misconduct of the superintendent against whom such judgment shall have been recovered.
N.Y. High. Law § 270