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TITLE III.

Of the Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and Courts of
Oyer and Terminer.

SECTION 17. Existing statutory provisions, as to terms and business of the
courts repealed, and order of supreme court fixing the

terms, &c., abrogated.

18.

General terms prescribed.

19.

Number of judges to give judgment.

20. Special terms, circuit courts, and courts of oyer and terminer, prescribed.

21. Circuit courts and oyer and terminer held together.

22. Designation of times and places of holding courts; how made. 23. Extraordinary general and special terms, and oyer and ter. miner; how appointed.

24. Places of holding the courts.

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Existing § 17. [Sec. 15.] All statutes now in force, providing for

statutory

provisions the designation of the times and places of holding the ge

as to terms

and busineral and special terms of the supreme court, and the circuit

ness of the

courts re- courts and courts of oyer and terminer, and of the judges who

pealed

and order

of supreme shall hold the same, are repealed, from and after the first day

court fixing

abrogated.

Amended 1849.

terms, &c. of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight; and the order of the supreme court, adopted July fourteen, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, prescribing the times and places of holding the general and special terms of the court, and the circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer, during the residue of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven and for the years one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight and one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and assigning the business and duties thereof to the several judges of the court is, from and after the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, abrogated; and the provisions of this title are substituted in place thereof.

The supreme court as now organized has the jurisdictional powers of the late supreme court and court of chancery combined, and this jurisdiction extends throughout the state. Sherman et al. vs. Felt et al., 2 Com. 186; S. C. 3 How. 425; Blackmar agt. Van Inwager, 5 How. 367.

terms pre

§ 18. [Sec. 16.] At least four general terms of the su- General preme court shall be held annually in each judicial dis- scribed. trict, and as many more as the judges in such district Amended shall appoint, at such times and places as a majority of the judges of such district shall appoint.

1849.

the Number of pro- give judg

judges to

§ 19. [Sec. 17.] The concurrence of a majority of judges holding a general term, shall be necessary to nounce a judgment. If a majority do not concur, the case shall be re-heard.

ment.

Special

terms cir

cuit courts

and courts

terminer

§ 20. [Sec. 18.] There shall be at least two terms of the circuit court and court of oyer and terminer held annually in each of the counties of this state, and as many more terms of oyer & thereof, and as many special terms as the judges of each prescribed. judicial district shall appoint therein, but at least one Amended special term shall be held annually in each of said counties. Fulton and Hamilton shall be considered one county for the purposes of this section.

§ 21. [Sec. 19.] Circuit courts, and courts of oyer terminer, shall be held at the same places, and menced on the same day.

and

1849.

Circuit

courts and

courts of oyer & ter

com- miner held

together.

Amended 1849.

Designation of

places of

courts how

1849.

§ 22. [Sec. 23.] The governor shall, on or before the first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, by times and appointment in writing, designate the times and places of holding holding the general and special terms, circuit courts, and made. courts of oyer and terminer, and the judges by whom they Amended shall be held; which appointment shall take effect on the first day of July thereafter, and shall continue until the thirty first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine. The judges of the supreme court of each district shall, in like manner, at least one month before the expiration of that time, appoint the times and places of holding those courts for two years, commencing on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, and so on, for every two succeeding years, in their respective districts.

Extraordi

nary gene

cial terms

§ 23. [Sec. 24.] The governor may also appoint extraorral and spe- dinary general and special terms, circuit courts, and courts of oyer and terminer whenever, in his judgment, the public good shall require it.

and oyer

and terminer how

appointed.

Places of holding

courts.

1849, 1851.

§ 24. [Sec. 25.] The places appointed within the several counties, for holding the general and special terms, circuit Amended courts and courts of oyer and terminer, shall be those designated by statute for holding county or circuit courts. If a room for holding the court in such place shall not be provided by the supe visors, it may be held in any room provided for that purpose, by the sheriff, as prescribed by section twenty-eight.

Publication

ments

thereof.

General and special terms of the supreme or county courts and circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer, may be adjourned to be held on any future day, by an entry to be made in the minutes of the court; and juries may be drawn and summoned for an adjourned circuit or county court, or an adjourned court of oyer and terminer, and causes may be noticed for trial at an adjourned circuit or county court, in the same manner as if such courts were held by original appoint

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§ 25. [Sec. 26.] Every appointment so made, shall be of appoint- immediately transmitted to the secretary of state,who shall cause it to be published in the newspaper, printed at Albany, in which legal notices are required to be inserted,at least once in each week, for three weeks before the holding of any court in pursuance thereof. The expense of the publication shall be paid out of the treasury of the state.

When

judges not assigned

may hold

§ 26. [Sec. 28.] In case of the inability, for any cause, of a judge assigned for that purpose, to hold a special term or the courts. circuit court, or sit at a general term, or preside at a court of oyer and terminer, any other judge may do so.

Duties of judges as to

out of

§27. [Sec. 30.] The judges shall at all reasonable time, business when not engaged in holding court, transact such other business as may be done out of court. Every proceeding Amended commenced before one of the judges, in the first judicial

court.

r

district, may be continued before another, with the same effect as if commenced before him.

fuel, &c. how furnished.

§ 28. [Sec. 31.] The supervisors of the several counties Rooms, shall provide the courts appointed to be held therein with room, attendants, fuel, lights and stationery, suitable and sufficient for the transaction of their business. If the supervisors neglect, the court may order the sheriff to do so; and the expense incurred by him in carrying the order into effect, when certified by the court, shall be a county charge.

Section fifty-one applies this section to the superior court of the city of New-York.

TITLE IV.

Of the County Courts.

SECTION 29. Repeal of existing statutes defining their jurisdiction.
30. Their jurisdiction.

31. General terms, when held. Notice to be published.
32. Jurors, how drawn and summoned.

existing statutes de

jurisdic

§ 29. [Sec. 32.] All statutes now in force, conferring or Repeal of defining the jurisdiction of the county courts, so far as they fining their conflict with this act, are repealed; and those courts shall tion. have no other jurisdiction than that provided in the next section. But the repeal contained in this section shall not affect any proceedings now pending in those courts.

diction.

§30. [Sec. 33.] The county court has jurisdiction in the Their jurfollowing special cases, but has no original civil jurisdiction except in such cases:

1. Civil actions in which the relief demanded is the recovery of a sum of money not exceeding five hundred dollars, or the recovery of the possession of personal property not exceeding in value five hundred dollars, and in which all the defendants are residents of the county in which the action is brought at the time of its commencement: subject to the right of the supreme court upon special motion for good cause shown to remove any such action to the supreme court before trial.

Amended 1849, 1851.

2. The exclusive power to review in the first instance, a judgment rendered in a civil action by a justice's court in the county, or by a justices' court in cities, and to affirm, reverse or modify such judgment:

3. The foreclosure or satisfaction of a mortgage, and the sale of mortgaged premises situated within the county, and the collection of any deficiency on the mortgage remaining unpaid, after the sale of the mortgaged premises

4. The partition of real property situated within the county:

5. The admeasurement of dower in land situated within the county:

6. The sale, mortgage or other disposition of the real property situated within the county, of an infant or person of

unsound mind:

7. To compel the specific performance, by an infant, heir or other person, of a contract made by a party who shall have died before the performance thereof·

8. The care and custody of the person and estate of a lunatic or person of unsound mind, or an habitual drunkard, residing within the county:

9. The mortgage or sale of the real property situated within the county, of a religious corporation, and the disposition of the proceeds thereof:

10. To exercise the power and authority heretofore vested in such courts of common pleas, over judgments rendered by justices of the peace, transcripts of which have been filed in the offices of the county clerks in such counties:

11. To exercise all the powers' and jurisdiction conferred by statute upon the late courts of common pleas of the county, or the judges or any judge thereof, respecting ferries, fisheries, turnpike roads, wrecks, physicians, habitual drunkards, imprisoned, insolvent, absent, concealed or non-resident debtors, gaol liberties, the removal of occupants from state lands, the laying out of railroads through Indian lands, and upon appeal from the determination of commissioners of highways,

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