New York Laws
Article 2 - General Provisions
18 - Dissolution of Religious Corporations.

§ 18. Dissolution of religious corporations. Whenever any religious
corporation shall cease to act in its corporate capacity and keep up the
religious services; it shall be lawful for the supreme court of this
state, upon the application of a majority of the trustees thereof, in
case said court shall deem it proper so to do, to order and decree a
dissolution of such religious corporation, and for that purpose to order
and direct a sale and conveyance of any and all property belonging to
such corporation, and after providing for the ascertaining and payment
of the debts of such corporation, and the necessary costs and expenses
of such sale and proceedings for dissolution, so far as the proceeds of
such sale shall be sufficient to pay the same; such court may order and
direct any surplus of such proceeds remaining after paying such debts,
costs and expenses, to be devoted and applied to any such religious,
benevolent, or charitable objects or purposes as the said trustees may
indicate by their petition and the said court may approve.

Such application to said court shall be made by petition, duly
verified by said trustees, which petition shall state the particular
reason or causes why such sale and dissolution are sought; the
situation, condition and estimated value of the property of said
corporation, and the particular object or purposes to which it is
proposed to devote any surplus of the proceeds of such property; and
such petition shall, in all cases, be accompanied with proof that notice
of the time and place of such intended application to said court, has
been duly published once in each week for at least four weeks
successively, next preceding such application, in a newspaper published
in the county where such corporation is located.

In case there shall be no trustees of such religious corporation
residing in the county in which such corporation is located, such
application may be made, and such proceedings taken, by a majority of
the members of such religious corporation residing in such county.

In case such corporation is under the jurisdiction of an incorporated
ecclesiastical governing body such application may be made and such
proceedings taken by such incorporated ecclesiastical governing body,
provided the trustees or other officers or surviving members of the
local church shall refuse to act after request has been duly made by the
governing body, and in such case the proceeds shall be turned over to
said governing body.