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