§ 87. Attendance of witnesses and their fees. 1. The commissioner, or an employee of the department duly designated, shall have power to issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum. All subpoenas shall be signed and issued by the commissioner or by an officer or employee of the department specially authorized to conduct an investigation or hearing. The fees of witnesses required to attend before the commissioner, or an officer or employee of the department specially authorized to conduct an investigation or hearing, shall be the same as in the case of a subpoena issued out of a court of record, and paid when the witness is excused from further attendance. Except as is herein provided subpoenas shall be regulated by the civil practice law and rules. Whenever a subpoena is issued at the instance of a complainant, respondent or other party to any proceeding before the commissioner, or an officer or employee of the department specially authorized to conduct an investigation or hearing, the cost of service thereof and the fee of the witness shall be borne by the party at whose instance the witness is summoned.

2. If a person subpoenaed to attend before the commissioner, or an officer or employee of the department specially authorized to conduct an investigation or hearing, fails to obey the command of such subpoena, without reasonable cause, or if a person in attendance shall, without reasonable cause, refuse to be sworn or to be examined or to answer a question or to produce a book or papers, when ordered so to do by the commissioner or an officer or employee of the department specially authorized to conduct an investigation or hearing, or to subscribe and swear to his deposition after it has been correctly reduced to writing, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.