USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
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$6,000 a year, in accordance with an act of the Legislature passed May 27, 1889. Amendments as to compensation have since been made until the salary now paid is $17,500 per annum, of which sum the county pays $15,000. The office of surrogate to the close of the last century was held by the following :
Gilbert Willet, 1730-54
John Bartow, 1754-61
Caleb Fowler, 1761-66
Ebenezer White, Jr., 1821-28
David Dayton, 1766-78
Jonathan Ward, 1828-40
Richard Hatfield, 1778-87
Alexander H. Wells, 1840-48
Philip Pell, 1787-96
Lewis C. Platt, 1848-56 Robert H. Coles, 1856-62
Elias Newman, 1796-1800
Samuel Youngs, 1800-02
Edward Thomas, 1802-07
Silas D. Gifford, appointed in place of Robert H. Coles, deceased, 1862-63
Samuel Youngs, 1807-08
John W. Mills, 1863-71
Ezra Lockwood, 1811-13
Owen T. Coffin, 1871-95
Samuel Youngs, 1813-15
Authority to appoint a clerk in the Surrogate's Court was vested in the surrogate by an act of the Legislature, passed in 1863. The salary as fixed by the act was $2,500 a year, later raised to $6,300 per year. Those who held the office to the close of the nineteenth century were :
Charles H. Earl, 1863-67
David Verplanck, 1867-71
William M. Skinner, 1871-89
Francis X. Donoghue, 1889-92 H. P. Griffin, 1892-95 Leslie Sutherland, 1895-1901
Justices of Sessions-Justices of Sessions elected to serve, from 1858 to 1896, when on January 1st, the office ceased to exist by adoption of a constitutional amendment, were as follows:
Samuel Tompkins, 1858-59 John H. Baxter, 1883-91
William Miller, 1858-62 and 1865-66
Hanford M. Henderson, 1887-88-1891
James Parker, 1860-61-62 Henry J. Carey, 1889
L. Leonce Coudert, 1863
John J. Crennan, 1890
James Williamson, 1863-64
John C. Holmes, 1891-92-93
Thomas J. Byrne, 1864-65 James C. Travis, 1891
David K. Conklin, 1866-67-68
Walter H. Jones, 1892
Myron B. Silkman, 1867-77
James Hyatt, 1893-94
Stephen Billings, 1869-86
Walter H. Haight, 1894
William C. Howe, 1870-86
Edward B. Kear, 1895-96
Cyrus Lawrence, 2d, 1877-81 James S. See, 1881-82
Robert J. Bellew, 1895-96
Chief Justices of the old order of the New York State Supreme Court, appointed from Colonial times until the change in the Constitu- tion in 1846, were :
John Jay, appointed May 8, 1777
Richard Morris, October 23, 1779
Robert Yates, September 28, 1790
John Lansing, Jr., February 15, 1798 Morgan Lewis, October 28, 1801 James Kent, July 2, 1804
Henry White, 1815-19 Samuel Youngs, 1819-21
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Smith Thompson, February 3, 1814 Ambrose Spencer, February 29, 1819 John Savage, January 29, 1823
Samuel Nelson, August 31, 1831 Greene C. Bronson, March 5, 1845 Samuel Beardsley, June 28, 1847
Associate or Puisne Judges-Associate or Puisne judges during the same period were :
Robert Yates, appointed May 8, 1777
John Sloss Hobart, May 8, 1777
John Lansing, Jr., September 28, 1790
Morgan Lewis, December 24, 1792 Egbert Benson, January 29, 1794 James Kent, February 6, 1798 John Cozine, August 9, 1798 Jacob Radcliff, December 27, 1798 Brockholst Livingston, January 8,, 1802
Smith Thompson, January 8, 1802
Ambrose Spencer, February 3, 1804 Daniel D. Tompkins, July 2, 1804 William W. Van Ness, June 9, 1807
Joseph C. Yates, February 8, 1808 Jonas Platt, February 23, 1814
John Woodworth, March 27, 1819
Jacob Sunderland, January 28, 1823 William L. Marcy, January 21, 1829 Samuel Nelson, February 1, 1831 Greene C. Bronson, January 6, 1836 Esek Cowen, August 31, 1836
Samuel Beardsley, February 20, 1844 Freeborn G. Jewett, March 5, 1845
Frederick Whittlesey, June 30, 1847 Thomas McKissock, July 1, 1847
County Judges-The judges of the Court of the County, prior to 1846, were designated Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. After that year they were termed county judges, the Constitution of 1846 having changed the title and provided for election by the people. The term of office was made six years; the salary, fixed by a special act of the Legislature, February 25, 1890, was $6,000 a year. Later the salary was increased to $10,000. The office has been held by :
John Pell, 1688-95
John Thomas, 1737-39
Caleb Heathcote, 1695-1721
John Ward, 1737-39
William Willett, 1721-32
John Ward, 1752-54
Frederick Philipse, 1732-34
Nathaniel Underhill, 1755-74
Israel Honeywell, 1734-37
Jonathan Fowler, 1769-71
Israel Honeywell, 1740-43
Jonathan Fowler. 1773-75
Samuel Purdy, 1734-37
Caleb Fowler, 1772-76
Samuel Purdy, 1740-52
(No sessions of the court were held between the years 1776 and 1778)
Robert Graham, 1778-84
William Jay, 1820-23
Stephen Ward, 1784-91
Caleb Tompkins, 1823-46
Ebenezer Lockwood, 1791-94
Robert S. Hart, 1846-47
Jonathan G. Tompkins, 1794-97
Albert Lockwood, 1847-51
Ebenezer Purdy, 1797-1802
John W. Mills, 1851-56
Elijah Lee, January 20, 1802, to March 29, 1802
William H. Robertson, 1856-68
Robert Cochran, 1868-72
John Watts, 1802-07
Caleb Tompkins, 1807-20
Silas D. Gifford, 1872-84 Isaac N. Mills, 1884-96
District Attorneys-Upon the creation of the office of district at- torney, on April 4, 1801, a certain number of district attorneys were
1
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appointed to districts composed of several counties. By the act of the Legislature, passed in 1818, each county was made into a district. Until 1846 district attorneys were appointed by Courts of General Sessions in each county; of late years these officers have been elected by the people for the term of three years each. The salary was $6,000; this was later raised to $10,000. Following 1818 the office of district attorney was held by the following :
Robert P. Lee, 1819-20
John S. Bates, 1866-69
Aaron Ward, 1820-23 Jackson O. Dykman, 1869-72
William Nelson, 1823-45
Daniel C. Briggs, 1872-75
Richard R. Voris, 1845-48
Robert Cochran, 1875-78
William W. Scrugham, 1848-51
Nelson H. Baker, 1878-90
Edward Wells, 1851-57
William P. Platt, 1890-96
William H. Pemberton, 1857-63
George C. Andrews, 1896-99-1902
Pelham L. McClellan, 1863-66
Prior to 1875 the business of the office of district attorney did not require the services of an assistant law officer; and in that year the office of assistant district attorney was created, the district attorney being empowered to appoint his deputy, who received a salary of $2,000 a year. Later there were three assistant district attorneys ap- pointed, to be paid as follows: First, $6,000; second, $6,000; third, $4,000. The office was held by the following, whose terms began in the year given :
David Verplanck, 1875; Frederick E. Weeks, 1896; Frank M. Buck, 1898. Mr. Buck was appointed May 3, 1898, to succeed Frederick E. Weeks, who resigned that he might accompany his regiment and participate in the war with Spain. Fred- erick E. Weeks, 1899; Frederick E. Weeks, 1902; William A. Moore (second as- sistant), 1906; Frederick E. Weeks (first assistant), 1906; Frederick E. Weeks (first assistant), 1908; Lee Parsons Davis (second assistant), 1908; Frederick E. Weeks (first assistant), 1911; W. J. Fallon, 1914; Walter A. Ferris, 1914; Thomas A. McKennell, 1916; Walter A. Ferris, 1916; Thomas A. McKennell.
Justices of Supreme Court-An independent Court of Appeals and the present Supreme Court were created under the Constitution of 1846 of the State of New York. Justices of the Supreme Court are to be chosen by the electors of their respective districts, and are to hold office for fourteen years. The retirement age is seventy years. The compensation of the chief judge of the Court of Appeals is $10,500, and of the associate judges, $10,000, with an additional allowance of $3,700 each for expenses. The compensation of a Supreme Court justice has been increased from time to time until it is, in this judicial district, $17,500 per annum. The stipulated compensation of a Supreme Court justice throughout the State is $10,000 per annum. The salary of the Supreme Court Justices in the Judicial Districts is fixed by special laws. New constitutions and constitutional amendments have, from time
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to time, increased the number of justices of the Supreme Court. The justices of the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial District, with the years in which they were first elected have been :
Selah B. Strong, 1847
Charles F. Brown, 1882
William T. McCoun, 1847
William Bartlett, 1883
Nathan B. Morse, 1847
Joseph F. Barnard, 1885
Seward Barculo, 1847
Jackson O. Dykman, 1889
John W. Brown, 1849
Calvin E. Pratt, 1891
Selah B. Strong, 1851
William J. Gaynor, 1893
William Rockwell, 1853
Edgar M. Cullen, 1890
Gilbert Dean, 1854
Nathaniel H. Clement, 1894
James Emott, 1855
William J. Osborne, 1894
Lucien Birdseye, 1856
Augustus Van Wyck, 1894
John W. Brown, 1857
Martin J. Keogh, 1895
John A. Lott, 1857
William D. Dickey, 1895
William W. Scrugham, 1859
Wilmot F. Smith, 1895
John A. Lott, 1857
Samuel T. Maddox, 1896
Joseph F. Barnard, 1863
Michael H. Hirschberg, 1896
Jasper W. Gilbert, 1865
Garret J. Garretson, 1896
William Fullerton, 1867
Abraham B. Tappan, 1867
Calvin E. Pratt, 1869
Jackson O. Dykman, 1875
Willard Bartlett, 1897
Calvin E. Pratt, 1877
Almet F. Jenks, 1898
Erastus Cooke, 1880
Josiah T. Marean, 1898
Edgar M. Cullen, 1880
Circuit Judges-Circuit judges of the old Second District, who were appointed up to the change in the Constitution, in 1846, after which the judges were elected by the people, were :
Samuel R. Betts, appointed April 21, 1823 Selah B. Strong, March 27, 1846 James Emott, February 21, 1827 Seward Barculo, April 4, 1846
Charles H. Ruggles, March 9, 1831
William W. Goodrich, appointed in 1896 in place of Calvin E. Pratt, deceased, and elected November 3, 1896
United States Circuit Court-On the formation of the United States government there were only the Supreme Court and the District Courts. For many years the justices of the Supreme Court acted as circuit judges. When this service became burdensome the Congress estab- lished the United States Circuit Court, and still later, for the purpose of further relieving the Supreme Court, established the United States Court of Appeals, the various circuit and district judges presiding. The United States Court of Claims, which sits only in Washington, was created for the dual purpose of removing responsibilities from Congress and of assisting the already overloaded older courts. Justices of the Circuit Court of the United States, Second Circuit, with the year of their appointment, have been: E. Henry Lacombe, 1887; Alfred C. Coxe, 1902; Henry C. Ward, 1907; Walter C. Noyes, 1907.
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The justices of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, were in 1924:
Henry Wade Rogers, New York City Julius M. Mayer, New York City
Charles M. Hough, New York City William Parkin, clerk, New York City Martin T. Manton, Bayport, Long Island
United States District Court-Justices of the District Court of the United States, Southern District, State of New York, have been:
George B. Adams (died in 1911), 1901; George C. Holt, 1903; Charles M. Hough, 1906; Learned Hand, New York City, 1909; Augustus N. Hand, New York City; John Clark Knox, New York City; Francis A. Winslow, city of Yonkers; Henry W. Goddard, New York City ; William Bondy, New York City.
The clerk to the United States District Court, Southern District, is Alexander Gilchrist, Jr., New York City ; chief deputy clerk, William Tallman; United States district attorney, 1924-25; William Hayward, New York City; United States district attorney, 1925, succeeding Wil- liam Hayward, resigned, Emory R. Buckner, New York City; assistant United States district attorneys, 1925, Robert E. Manley, Sherwood E. Hall, Moses Polakoff, John Crawford, John M. Harlan, Maxwell Mattuck. The marshal of the court is William C. Hecht, of New York City. The Southern United States Judicial District is composed of the counties of Westchester, New York, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Greene, Columbia, Ulster and Sullivan. The sittings of this court are held in the old General Postoffice Building and at No. 233 Broadway, New York City. The first resident north of the Harlem to be appointed a judge of this court was Francis A. Winslow, of Yonkers. Previously all of such appointments, made by the President of the United States, had gone to New York County. The salary of the Chief Justice is $13,000 per annum, and that of the associate justice $12,500. The salary of the circuit judge is $7,000 per annum; that of the district judge $6,000 per annum; that of the Chief Justice of the United States Court of Claims $6,500 per annum, and the salaries of the associate justices $6,000.
Appellate Court Established-Following the adoption of the Constitu- tion of 1894 of the State of New York the judicial system of the State underwent a complete change. The Supreme Court was elevated in rank and the work thrown upon the Court of Appeals was appreciably lessened. In this manner the Court of Appeals confined its deliberations to the questions of law, and a new court was created, known as the Appellate Supreme Court. Justices of the Supreme Court are desig- nated by the Governor to act as Justices of the new court. Under the new Constitution these changes became operative on or after January
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1, 1896. The following important provisions were also made by the new Constitution : Providing for a trial of impeachments when pre- ferred by the Legislature or the Governor; this Court of Impeachment. to consist of the Lieutenant-Governor, the State Senators and the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals shall consist of a chief justice and six associate judges, elected by the people, of the whole State, to hold office for the term. of fourteen years. The salary of a justice of the New York State Supreme Court is $10,000 per annum. Those assigned to the Appellate Divisions in the Third and Fourth Depart- ments shall each receive in addition the sum of $2,000, and the presiding justice thereof, $2,500 per year. Those justices elected in the First and Second Judicial Departments shall continue to receive from their respective cities, counties or districts, as now provided by law, such additional compensation as will make their aggregate compensation what they are now (1896) receiving. Those justices elected in any judicial department other than the First or Second, and assigned to the Appellate Divisions of the First or Second Departments, shall, while so assigned, receive from those departments, respectively, as now provided by law, such additional sum as is paid to the justices of those departments. The Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to hear and de- termine appeals from the orders or judgments of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and, except where the judgment is of death, it is limited to the review of questions of law. The Appellate Division in any department may allow an appeal upon any question of law which, in its opinion, ought to be reviewed by the Court of Appeals. The Constitution also provides: "No unanimous decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, that there is evidence supporting or tending to sustain a finding of fact, or a verdict not directed by the court, shall be reviewed by the Court of Appeals, except where the judgment is of death." The Legislature is authorized further to restrict the jurisdiction of the court and the right to appeal thereto; but the right of appeal is not to depend on the amount involved.
Supreme Court Advanced-Under the new Constitution Circuit Courts and Courts of Oyer and Terminer were abolished, and after December 31, 1895, their jurisdiction was vested in the Supreme Court. The Constitution declares that the State is to be divided into four judicial departments : The first, to be composed of New York County, and the others, to be divided by the Legislature, must be bounded by county lines, and be compact and equal in population as nearly as may be. Judicial departments, says the Constitution, may be altered once in ten years, but without increasing the number. The Second De- partment, Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, consists of a pre- siding justice and six associate judges. By the new Constitution,
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General Terms of the Supreme Court were abolished and their juris- diction was transferred to the Appellate Division. Justices of the Supreme Court are elected for a term of fourteen years. A justice whose term of office has been abridged by limitation of age may, with his con- sent, be assigned by the Governor to any duty in the Supreme Court, while his compensation is continued. The new Constitution provided that "the Legislature may erect out of the Second Judicial District, as now constituted, another judicial district and apportion the justices in office between the districts, and provide for the election of additional justices in the new district not exceeding the limit therein provided." Under this provision, the Ninth Judicial District was erected. Under the Constitution justices of the Supreme Court are prohibited from holding any other office or place of public trust; from exercising any power of appointment to public office, and from practicing as attorney or counselor, or acting as referee. They are removable by concurrent resolution of both Houses of the Legislature, if two-thirds of all the members elected to each branch concur therein.
Bronx Lawyers and The Bronx-The legal history of The Bronx has never been an independent legal history. Through much the greater part of its history affairs within it have to be regarded as an element of affairs in Westchester County, a cross section or a division or a strand woven within the texture of the manifold life of the larger territory. Its more recent legal history on the other hand is constituted by threads in the warp and woof of the legal history of New York City. The territory of The Bronx was taken from Westchester County and in- corporated with New York City in 1898. Its formation as a county was later. The Bronx is the youngest county division of the State of New York; and its establishment as such may be traced largely to the initiative of Bronx lawyers. The Association of the Bar of the County of The Bronx was incorporated in 1902, as the Association of the Bar of The Borough of Bronx in the City of New York, the name being changed in February, 1913. A committee of this association drafted The Bronx County Act in 1904, and was the sole advocate of the Act of 1912 through the courts.
On April 19, 1912, the act was passed creating the County of The Bronx, subject to the referendum of the voters of the Borough of The Bronx. At the election of November, 1912, the majority of votes cast were in favor. However, the constitutionality of the act was questioned, on the ground that the Legislature had no power to submit the question to the voters, since New York State, being a representative democracy, should act through the representatives of the people in the Legislature; and secondly, that, if submitted to the people, it should have been put before the electorate of the whole of the city of New York, not only
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voters in The Bronx. The act was declared unconstitutional by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, but the decision was re- versed by the Court of Appeals, on March 21, 1913. The first county officers of The Bronx, all elected in November, 1912, were: L. G. Gibbs, county judge; G. M. Schultz, surrogate; Francis Martin, district at- torney; J. V. Ganley, county clerk; J. F. O'Brien, sheriff.
During recent years the advisability of amending the judiciary article of the existing Constitution was much discussed in New York City. A Constitutional Convention, sitting in 1921, considered almost all phases of it, aided in their deliberations by the facts presented by many committees-of bar associations, judicial and civic bodies-the move- ment culminating in two bills upon the subject introduced in the Senate in 1924 and 1925. The Schackno bill was passed by the Legislature of 1924, and was presented again in the Senate on January 13, 1925, for second passage. The other bill, which is in effect identical with, and takes the place of that sponsored by Senator Henry G. Schackno, was introduced by Senator Cole, and bore date of January 22, 1925. It passed the Senate, but was amended by the Assembly. On the last day of the session the amendments were accepted by the Senate. The measure, though differing considerably from the changes originally recommended, were the direct outgrowth of the convention of lawyers and jurists referred to above. Briefly, one of the original proposals was to abolish the county courts of New York, The Bronx, Kings, Queens, and Richmond, by transferring their criminal jurisdiction to the Court of General Sessions, and their civil jurisdiction to the City Court, the latter, like the General Sessions, being made city-wide. The county judges would in the reorganization be continued, for their present terms, in the enlarged new Court of General Sessions. Under the Schackno and Cole bills, however, the county courts, instead of being abolished, were to be continued in their prevailing jurisdiction, and the terms of the judges were to be extended from six to fourteen years. The Court of General Sessions was to remain undisturbed, functioning as the criminal court in New York County only; but the City Court was to be extended to take in the civil cases from the county courts of Greater New York outside Manhattan, namely, of Kings, Queens, The Bronx, and Richmond. Another change was to extend the terms of surrogates in every county to fourteen years. Another important amendment was directed at taking the subject of judicial salaries out of the Constitution altogether, thereby making subsequent modifications matters for only legislative action.
The act of April 30, 1921, authorized the convening of a Constitutional Convention, to be constituted of one judge of the Court of Appeals, one justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, in each judicial department, one justice of the Supreme Court in each judicial
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district, the attorney-general, three Senators, three Assemblymen, and one attorney and counselor-at-law from each of the nine judicial districts of the State, making in all thirty members of the convention, which was to meet for organization on May 10, 1921. Promptly on the passage of this act, the Court of Appeals chose Judge Cuthbert W. Pound; the several Appellate divisions chose Justices Lambert, Laugh- lin, Putnam, and Woodward; the justices of the several Judicial Dis- tricts chose Justices Benedict, Borst, Crouch, Kellogg, Marcus, New- burger, Rudd, Sawyer, and Young; the President of the Senate desig- nated Senators Burlingame, Whitley and Cotillo; the Speaker of the Assembly designated Assemblymen Cole, Donohue, and Duke, and the Governor appointed to represent the bar of the several districts Messrs. Clearwater of Kingston, Cobb of Syracuse, Dykman of Brook- lyn, Hill of Norwich, Kenefick of Buffalo, Guthrie of New York, Rogers of Hudson Falls, Sutherland of Rochester, and Wallin of Yonkers. On the day named the members convened at the Capitol in Albany, and organized by electing Judge Pound permanent chairman. Attorney- General Newton became vice-chairman, and Herbert L. Smith secretary.
At the outset the convention had the reports and discussions of the Constitutional Conventions of 1894 and 1915 to base their deliberations upon; and the executive committee considered the recommendations of many committees, being waited upon, then or later, by committees of the New York Courts, by the Association of the Bar, by the New York County Lawyers' Association, the State Bar Association, and other interested bodies. It was necessary to recognize in the first instance, before drafting any amendments that they were considering "a complex judicial system which had developed, not always logically or scientific- ally, with the growth of a great State, and which vitally affected an urban and rural population of eleven million inhabitants, more than three times the population of the United States when the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted, and larger than the population of several independent nations at the present time." The convention moved with caution, recognizing that past constitutions "were the work of the ablest and most famous statesmen and lawyers," and that a system "so erected and long tried" surely should not "be discarded with- out grave and compelling reasons." They knew that judicial systems "for highly civilized and populous communities in our complex civiliza- tion cannot be made over at will," and they resolved to be very certain of their reasons for any amendments proposed. They held to the conservative rather than to the radical view. For instance, though the convention appreciated that the appointive system "might be theo- retically preferable," yet they were not prepared to suggest that "the practical experience of the State during the past three-quarters of a century under the elective system had not been satisfactory, and had
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