USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume II > Part 41
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The traffic Court, another of special purpose, was estab- lished in 1915. Another, which has an important part in reliev- ing serious congestion in the district courts of New York City,
terms thereof, subject to such regulations as the presiding justice of the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court in the first and second depart- ments shall from time to time prescribe. The justices of said City Court shall have power to appoint and remove a chief clerk of the court, and one or more deputy clerks in each county, who shall keep their respective office or offices at a place or places to be designated by the court, and whose duties shall be regulated and supervised by the presiding justice of the court.
All civil actions or proceedings pending on said first day of January in the county courts of the Counties of Kings, Bronx, Queens, and Rich- mond, respectively, are hereby transferred to the City Court of the City of New York for hearing and determination at terms held within the counties in which the same shall be pending, and, for the purpose only of such hear- ing and determination and the enforcement of the judgments rendered thereon, said City Court shall have and exercise the equity jurisdiction previously vested in the respective county courts from which such cases are so transferred, but not otherwise. Until the Legislature shall otherwise provide, the clerk of the City Court of the City of New York and the chief clerk of the County Court in each of the Counties of Kings, Bronx, Queens, and Richmond, shall severally act within his county as a deputy clerk of the City Court of the City of New York, and the presiding justice of the court shall make such rules and regulations respecting the clerk's offices, the assignment of secretaries to the justices, court clerks, stenographers, inter- preters, and other attendants and the distribution of the business of the
Withintwoor
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is the Municipal Term Court. Many of the cases brought before the Magistrates' Courts daily are trivial; but in 1914 it became evident that great injustice was done to poor people who were arraigned for some technical misdemeanor but whose case could not be summarily disposed of. Oftentimes they had to wait for a week or more before the Court of Special Ses- sions, to which they were remanded from the Magistrates' Court, could deal with the case. Statistics showed that the Court of Special Sessions acquitted or released without trial, because of insufficient evidence, an average each day of one person who had been held in jail awaiting trial and that every year nearly eight hundred persons were so deprived of their liberty for periods ranging from three to twenty-one days in length, awaiting trial. In many cases the offense charged, even if proved, would not have warranted so great a punish- ment. This grievous state was remedied by an amendment
court in the said several counties as from time to time may be expedient, subject to such general regulations as the presiding justices of the Appellate Divisions of the first and second departments shall from time to time pre- scribe. Appeals from the City Court of the City of New York shall be taken to the Appellate Term for the appropriate department or otherwise as may be prescribed by law.
18. Court of Special Sessions-Chapter XX, Title 3, of the Greater New York charter reads :
"The Court of Special Sessions is hereby continued, with all the powers, duties, and jurisdiction it now has by law, and such additional powers, duties and jurisdiction as are contained in and covered by Section 1419. The justices of the Court of Special Sessions of the first and second divisions of the City of New York are hereby continued in office until the expiration of the terms for which they have been appointed, and their successors shall be appointed by the mayor for the term of ten years. There shall be six jus- tices of the Special Sessions for the first division and six for the second divi- sion for a term of ten years, whose powers, duties, jurisdiction and compen- sation shall be the same; whose successors shall be elected in like manner and who shall possess all the requirements for appointment as those hereby continued in office."
19. Children's Court-Chapter XX, Title 3, Section 1399, Greater New York charter reads :
"The Board of City Magistrates of the first division shall assign a part for the hearing and disposition of cases now within the jurisdiction of said magistrates involving the trial or commitment of children, which part may
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providing that a magistrate might sit as a Special Sessions judge. So empowered, the magistrate could summarily dis- pose of many cases of violations of city ordinances. This method did not operate to complete satisfaction, so the city magistrates evolved the plan of the fifth Special Magistrate Court established-the Municipal Term Court, which deals exclusively with those cases in which the City or State Depart- ment is the complainant. City Magistrate W. Bruce Cobb dis- scribes it as "A court of prevention," which it really is, enforc- ing the laws and ordinances relating to fire protection, health, safe and sanitary housing, factory and employment evils of the great city. The court was brought into efficient functioning by Charles W. Appleton, its first magistrate. The actuating purpose is to get citizens to obey the law of "do" as well as the law of "don't." For instance, the citizen who fails to "build a fire-escape or install a sprinkler or clean a bakery, is not allowed to fall back on the excuse: 'I did not know.'" The long-bearded denizen of the East Side who was charged with
for convenience be called a Children's Court, and in all such cases the mag- istrate holding said court shall have all the powers, duties and jurisdiction now possessed by the city magistrates within said first division. Said Children's Court shall be held by the several magistrates in rotation in such manner as may be determined by said board and shall be opened on such days and during such hours as the said board shall in its rules provide. Whenever under any provision of law a child under sixteen years of age is taken before a city magistrate in the first division sitting in any court other than the Children's Court, it shall be the duty of such magistrate to transfer the case to the Children's Court. If the case falls within the jurisdiction of said court as herein provided, it shall be the duty of the officer having the child in charge to take such child before that court, and in any such case the magistrate holding said Children's Court must proceed to hear and dis- pose of the case in the same manner as if it had been originally brought therein. The Board of City Magistrates shall appoint a clerk for the Chil- dren's Court and such assistants as may be necessary, whose salaries shall be fixed by the Board of Aldermen on the recommendation of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and said court shall be held, if practicable, in the building in which the offices of the Department of Public Charities for the examination of dependent children are located, or if this shall not be practicable, the court shall be held in some other building as near thereto as practicable, to be selected by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. Noth- ing herein contained shall affect any provisions of law with respect to the
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bottling soft drinks in his bedroom and in the same operation corking several bed-bugs, was made aware of the offense. The apartment house owner who furnishes insufficient heat to his tenants is also brought before the court. In these and innumer- able other ways, the Municipal Term Court has since its foun- dation, in April, 1915, disposed of thousands of cases each year. In 1919, in all 11,242 cases were disposed of; 6,729 in Manhattan and 4,513 in Brooklyn. In that year, 1919, plans were being completed to establish the sixth special court-the Probation Court, to which would go all cases in which proba- tion had been violated, and from which all probationers who had redeemed their promises could be given honorable discharge.
An act of 1807 provided for Assistant Justices' Courts in New York City, with jurisdiction up to twenty-five dollars. Out of these courts came the District Courts of the city. These were abolished by Section 1350, Title 3, Chapter XX, of the Greater New York charter.21 These District Courts of New York and the Justices' Courts of Brooklyn were superseded by the Municipal Court of the City of New York.
temporary commitment by the magistrates of children charged with crime, or held as witnesses for the trial of any criminal case, or the existing juris- diction of the Court of Special Sessions."
20. City Magistrates' Courts-Chapter XX, Title 3, Section 1390, of the Greater New York charter divided New York into two parts :
"For the purpose of administration of criminal justice, the City of New York as hereby constituted, is divided into two divisions, as follows : The first division embraces the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx; the second division embraces the Boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond ; and the Borough of the Bronx in the first division shall be divided into two City Magistrates' Court Districts by the mayor and commissioner of police and the president of the Court of City Magistrates of the first division, in such manner as to make access to the courts convenient to the residents of that borough and otherwise conserve the public interests. The original dis- trict thus to be made shall be known as the Eighth District City."
21. Municipal Courts-The Greater New York charter, Chapter XX, Title 2, Section 1350, created Municipal Courts by following provision :
"On and after the first day of January, 1898, the District Courts of the City of New York, and the Justices' Courts of the first, second and third districts of the City of Brooklyn, are hereby continued, consolidated and reorganized, under the name of 'The Municipal Court of the City of New York,' which said court shall be a local civil court within the City of New
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Though established under and by virtue of the municipal charter, and of only local jurisdiction, states Scott, it has been held by the Supreme Court that the Municipal Courts are a part of the judicial system of the State, and its justices accord- ingly are not officers of the city government. (Quinn v. The Mayor, 44 How. Pr. 266, aff'd in 53 N. Y. 627). The Supreme Court further decided that the Municipal Courts of the City of New York are a continuance, consolidation and reorganization of the District Courts of the old City of New York, and the Justices' Courts in the first, second and third districts of the old city of Brooklyn under the new name, and not new local inferior courts within Section 18 of Article VI of the Consti- tution, authorizing the Legislature to establish inferior local courts, but prohibiting it from "hereafter conferring upon any inferior local court of its creation any other equity jurisdiction in any other respects than is conferred by and under this article." (Worthington v. London G & A Co., 164 N. Y. 80.)
The Municipal Court had original jurisdiction in civil actions instituted for the recovery of property or damages to the value of $500, but has no equity or criminal jurisdiction and cannot try actions involving title to real property. Appeals are to the Supreme Court.
However, on September 1, 1915, the Municipal Court became a court of record, with jurisdiction up to $1,000. And in 1925 session of the Legislature, an act passed "to amend the Municipal Court Code of the City of New York generally" will very materially alter the system. The reorganization will follow generally the recommendations of six bar associations
York as constituted by this act, and shall not be a court of record, or have any equity jurisdiction . .
Chapter XX, Title 3, Section 1350, reads in this connection :
"From and after midnight on the 3Ist day of January, 1898, the Jus- tices' Courts and the office of the Justice of the Peace in the cities of Brook- lyn and Long Island City are abolished, and from and after the passage of this act, no person shall be elected to the office of District Court Justice or Justice of the Peace in any portion of the territory included within the City of New York as constituted by this act."
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of New York. A Chief Justice, with a stipend of $15,000 a year will have general authority over the whole system, controlling the calendar practice, and transferring cases from one district to another within the same borough, as need may arise. The salaries of the forty-one justices will be increased from $9,000 a year in Bronx, Manhattan and Kings, and $8,000 a year in Queens and Richmond counties, to $12,000 a year each .- See Senate Bill, print numbers 1496 and 1567; G. O. 547; Int. 1329; State of New York, March 13, 1925.
LAW DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK CITY.
Without doubt the largest law office in the State-probably the largest in the United States-is the Law Department of the City of New York. An interesting "History of the Office of the Corporation Counsel and the Law Department of the City of New York," compiled in 1906 by John H. Greener, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the day (in 1857) "on which its honored and beloved Chief Clerk, Andrew T. Camp- bell, Esq., entered the service of the Department," gives some astonishing statistics. From a copy of this history corrected to 1912, it appears that the Law Department then had 437 regu- lar employees. In 1915 the number had increased to 463, and the increase there has since been corresponding. To give an idea of the amount of legal work accomplished, the statistics for the year 1911 may be given. On January 1, 1911, there were pending, and undisposed of, 46,260 actions and proceed- ings of all sorts in the various offices of the department. The number of actions and proceedings commenced during the year was 45,776, and the number terminated was 52,795, leav- ing 39,241 pending on December 31, 1911. During the year 1,423 written opinions were furnished to the municipal depart- ments by the Law Department, these opinions covering 26,160 pages "in the press copying books."
Such a vital department demands competent servants; and the city has been fortunate in having as its corporation counsel
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some who have proved themselves to be leading lawyers. Many have gone from the office of Corporation Counsel to the benches of the higher courts. Up to 1911 the following four- teen had been elevated to State and Federal Courts: Ogden Edwards, Michael Ullshoeffer, Robert Emmett, Henry E. Davies, Richard Busteed, Greene C. Bronson, Richard O'Gor- man, George P. Andrews, E. Henry Lacombe, Morgan J. O'Brien, Henry R. Beekman, Francis M. Scott, John J. Delany, Francis K. Pendleton. Almet F. Jenks and Joseph A. Burr, former corporation counsel of the city of Brooklyn, were then serving on the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Sec- ond Department. Twenty-six assistants to the corporation counsel had up to 1911 been promoted to the bench; and the list of prominent lawyers who have been connected at various times contains the names of many widely-known men.
The senior officials of the Law Department in 1925 is as follows: George P. Nicholson, corporation counsel, salary $15,000 ; Arthur J. W. Hilly, first assistant; Joseph H. John- son, secretary ; John H. Greener, chief clerk.
THE NEW YORK BAR.
Although there is not much available space, something must be written regarding some of the famous lawyers and jurists of New York City. The great lawyers of the city in provincial days were the leaders of the cause of the people. The determined efforts made by the resolute little band of New York City lawyers during the three or four decades imme- diately preceding the Revolution have been noticed in the chapters of the English period. The distinguished lawyers of the first days of the State have also been referred to more than once: Hamilton, Burr, Duane, Riker, Livingston, Kent, and others. The supreme efforts made by Tilden, Evarts, Butler, and others,22 to stamp out municipal corruption, which threat-
22. Association of the Bar-The New York lawyers who signed the first call in 1869 for organization of the Association of the Bar were: Wm.
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ened to demoralize both bench and bar in the late sixities and early seventies of the nineteenth century, when New York City's municipal affairs were controlled by the Tweed "Ring" of political adventurers of infamous record, have been referred to in Constitutional History chapters. The Tweed "Ring" manipulation of New York City funds puts into the annals of that city its most discreditable page, and the blackest in the history of its bench and bar, yet the banding together of the worthy members of its bar at that time, and the resolute suc- cessful struggle they fought with the political "machine" that was bringing bankruptcy to the city and discredit to the State furnishes perhaps the worthiest page of legal history of New York City. The great association of the bar then formed has ever since been a potent influence in the life of the New York lawyer.23 Its membership holds the flower of the American bar, just as the Inns of Court hold the English bar; and, although time alone will give the American association pres- tige such as the English organizations enjoy, yet the elevating
M. Everts, Henry Nicoll, Wm. Allen Butler, John K. Porter, A. J. Vander- poel, C. Van Santvoord, Thos. C. T. Buckley, D. B. Eaton, A. Underhill, D. D. Lord, F. N. Bangs, Henry H. Anderson, Edwards Pierrepont, E. H. Owen, H. M. Alexander, Ashbel Green, Wm. M. Pritchard, Wm. G. Choate, Richard S. Emmet, Clarkson N. Potter, Thos. H. Rodman, B. F. Dunning, John J. Townsend, Sidney Webster, C. A. Seward, Charles M. de Costa, Aug. F. Smith, Luther R. Marsh, Joseph H. Choate, Chs. F. Southmayd, Waldo Hutchins, Lucien Birdseye, Charles P. Crosby, Benja- min K. Phelps, Abm. R. Lawrence, Jr., Charles Coudert, Jr., L. L. Coudert, John Erving, John H. Platt, S. J. Tilden, H. M. Ruggles, Everett P. Wheeler, Charles A. Rapallo, Charles P. Kirkland, W. W. Macfarland, Charles A. Davison, F. R. Coudert, Charles Jones, C. J. DeWitt, J. Fred- erick Kernochan, J. W. Edmonds, William Hildreth Field, Charles H. Glover, Buchanan Winthrop, Frank E. Kernochan, Elial F. Hall, John M. Knox, Herbert B. Turner, Chas. P. Kirkland, Jr., John McKeon, Chas. E. Butler, S. P. Nash, Samuel E. Lyon, Alexander Hamilton, Jr., David Dud- ley Field, E. W. Stoughton, James Emott, Benj. D. Silliman, John Slosson, Charles A. Peabody, E. Louis Lowe, George N. Titus, John B. Crosby, Albon P. Man, John E. Parsons, E. C. Benedict, J. S. Bosworth, Edgar S. van Winkle, G. M. Speir, Henry A. Cram, F. F. Marbury, Wm. E. Curtis, Murray Hoffman, Hamilton W. Robinson, J. E. Burrill, J. W. Gerard, Jr., Alvin C. Bradley, George T. Strong, Wm. Betts, J. W. Ostrander, W. A. Ogden Hegeman, Wm. Barrett, David Thurston, William Henry Arnoux,
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influence that the Association of the Bar in New York City has exerted over the New York lawyers of the last fifty years has held the latter to as high a standard of professional integ- rity and personal honor as perhaps membership of the Inns of Court has inspired in British barristers. Ambassador Choate, the first American to be honored by election as a Bencher of the Inns of Court, was one of the brilliant lawyers and statesmen of New York City. The city may claim as its own two other lawyers who have envious place among the great statesmen of the world-Elihu Root and Charles Evans Hughes. The distinguished career of the latter is sketched in another chapter, that which deals with New York's contribu- tion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Root's life was briefly sketched in the March, 1925, number of the "Review of Reviews," in the caption of which biography he was described as the "most eminent of living statesmen."24 Mr. Root has been a member of the New York bar for fifty- eight years.
Chas. C. Jones, Jr., Franklin A. Wilcox, Theodore M. Davis, Chas. D. Ingersoll, Edm'd Randolph Robinson, Henry R. Winthrop, Henry Hilton, John S. Jenness, M. van Buren Wilcoxson, E. L. Fancher, Chas. F. San- ford, John Whipple, F. S. Stallknecht, Grosvenor P. Lowney, Andrew Stew- art, Edward Holland Nicholl, Frederick Smyth, Lyman W. Bates, James S. Huggins, John Berry, F. J. Fithian, Edward Patterson, E. Ellery Ander- son, Jos. B. Lawrence, Chas. E. Strong, A. P. Whitehead, T. R. Strong, Wm. J. Hoppin, Lewis L. Delafield, Chas. F. Blake, Livingston K. Miller, Wm. S. Opdyke, John E. Ward, Chas. B. Stoughton, Albert Mathews, Fla- men B. Candler, Philo T. Ruggles, B. Roelker, Wm. Tracy, Ch. Francis Stone, George W. Soren, George M. Miller, Wheeler H. Peckham, Theodore W. Dwight, Oscar Smedberg, Henry J. Scudder, Townsend Scudder, James P. Lowrey, Henry D. Sedgwick, Richard H. Bowne, Smith Clift, Chas. D. Burrell, George C. Barrett, Henry R. Beekman, Chas. B. Moore, Noah Davis, Julien T. Davis, Gerald Beekman, Eugene H. Pomeroy, Hamilton Morton, Thomas C. Ingersoll, Richard H. Clarke, Frederick Kapp, Edmund Wetmore, C. A. Hand, F. H. Churchill, Henry E. Davies, R. M. Harrison, Robert Sewell, E. G. Drake, Jr., Henry B. Hammond, W. Q. Morton, Henry Whittaker, Thomas M. Wheeler, Charles E. Whitehead, John N. Whiting, G. M. Odgen, Robert Benner, Elbridge T. Gerry, Charles Tracy, Chas. Edward Tracy, J. Evarts Tracy, George de Forest Lord, John C. Dimmick, J. S. Winter, Joshua M. van Cott, George W. Parsons, Hiram Barney, John Sherwood, Walter L. Livingston, Albert Stickney, Henry A. Tailer, Alfred
Eng by E. G. Williams & Bra. N.Y.
Joseph A Choate
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In the class of distinguished statesmen and diplomats of the present come Ambassador John W. Davis, who was the Demo- cratic candidate for President of the United States in 1924, and Ambassador Gerard, who did so well under difficult circum- stances in Germany during the first years of the World War. Former Attorney-General Wickersham is of the New York bar also. So is Chauncey M. Depew, who was admitted to the bar in 1858, and is still a member; indeed, to make note of all the great New York lawyers who have come into prominent notice at the bar, on the bench, or in public affairs during Depew's almost seven decades of connection with it would bring into review most of the important history of the Nation during the period. The writer is confronted by the hopeless- ness of attempting a chronological course of running comment of New York City's eminent lawyers and jurists, for to do so would bring before him the careers of such a host of notable men that he would fear to begin the task. New York City has been a powerful magnet, drawing to it the ablest men of the
L. Edwards, August R. Macdonough, W. W. Goodrich, S. Merrihew, D. C. van Cott, Beverly Robinson, Wm. Jay, John A. Weeks, Hooper C. van Vorst, George H. Forster, James F. Dwight, James C. Carter, Jos. Larocque, W. Stanley, Francis C. Barlow, Chas. H. Hunt, John S. Davenport, John J. Latting, John L. Cadwalader, Edward H. Anderson, Charles Nettleton, John A. Foster, Smith E. Lane, Thomas E. Stillman, Thomas H. Hubbard, Mor- ris S. Miller, John G. Vose, Dwight H. Olmstead, James J. Roosevelt, Fred- erick E. Mather, William Watson, John H. Risley, C. B. Wheeler, Edgar Ketchum, A. P. Ketchum, E. Ketchum, Jr., Fohn Fitch, Samuel G. Glassey, James R. Jessup, Joseph B. Varnum, P. W. Turney, Osborne E. Bright, Benj. T. Kissam, Henry P. Townsend.
The above list embraces most of the leading New York lawyers of that period (1869).
23. The Association of the Bar has had a tremendous following. In almost every county of our State and in many of the counties of the various States of the Union, will be found associations of the bar upon substantially the same foundation as our own. In its hall was promulgated the idea of forming the New York State Bar Association, which has had a flourishing existence, and this in turn was followed by the American Bar Association, which embraces all the States of the Union. There has been no more remarkable development among lawyers, during the past forty years, than that which has taken place in the formation of associations of the bar, to create friendly relations among the lawyers and to maintain a high standard of legal attainment and of honor in the profession.
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State-of many States, in fact. Many of these learned men of the law have been noticed in the review of the county from which they came; and much that is missing here will be sup- plied in the supplementary biographical volumes.
Silliman, in reminiscences of the bar of the city from about 1828 to 1888, refers to the older leading lawyers and jurists he knew in 1828-Egbert Benson, Chancellor Kent, Morgan Lewis, Aaron Burr, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Jacob Morton, Edward Griswold, Jacob Radcliffe, Richard Varick and Joseph Strong. Of Burr, he said, that whether in the courtroom, the street, or elsewhere, he seemed alone, a man of graceful, ele- gant manners, but captious and cynical at most times. There were then about five hundred lawyers in the city; Brooklyn had fourteen. He mentions "the noble" Robert Emmet, after- wards a judge of Superior Court. £ Chancellor Kent, "than
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