New York Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil jurisdiction, with most criminal matters handled in County Court.[1]

For the highest appellate court in New York, see New York Court of Appeals.
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New York State
Unified Court System

Specialized

The court is unlike courts with the name "Supreme Court" in nearly all other states, because in New York the Supreme Court is a trial court and is not the highest court in the state. The highest court of the State of New York is the Court of Appeals. Also, although it is a trial court, the Supreme Court sits as a "single great tribunal of general state-wide jurisdiction, rather than an aggregation of separate courts sitting in the several counties or judicial districts of the state."[2] The Supreme Court is established in each of New York's 62 counties.[1]

Jurisdiction
New York County Courthouse at 60 Centre Street, viewed from across Foley Square

Under the New York State Constitution, the New York State Supreme Court has unlimited jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases, with the exception of certain monetary claims against the State of New York itself. In practice, the Supreme Court hears civil actions involving claims above a certain monetary amount (for example, $50,000 in New York City) that puts the claim beyond the jurisdiction of lower courts.[3][4] Civil actions about lesser sums are heard by courts of limited jurisdiction, such as the New York City Civil Court, or the County Court, District Court, city courts, or justice courts (town and village courts) outside New York City.[3]

The Supreme Court also hears civil cases involving claims for equitable relief, such as injunctions, specific performance, or rescission of a contract, as well as actions for a declaratory judgment. The Supreme Court also has exclusive jurisdiction of matrimonial actions, such as either contested or uncontested actions for a divorce or annulment. The court also has exclusive jurisdiction over "Article 78 proceedings" against a body or officer seeking to overturn an official determination on the grounds that it was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable or contrary to law.[5]

At English Common Law, the lord chancellor, not as a part of his equitable jurisdiction, but as the king's delegate to exercise the Crown's special jurisdiction, had responsibility for the custody and protection of infants and the mentally incapacitated. Upon the organization of the Supreme Court in New York the Legislature transferred so much of the law as formed a part of the king's prerogative to it.[6] The Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court are responsible for oversight of the related programs.

In 1995, the New York Supreme Court established a trial level Commercial Division, beginning in New York County (Manhattan)[7] and Monroe County (the 7th Judicial District[8]).[9] The Commercial Division has expanded to the 8th District (located in Buffalo), and the Albany, Bronx, Kings, Nassau, Onondaga, Queens, Suffolk and Westchester County Supreme Courts.[10] These are specialized Business Courts, with a defined jurisdiction focusing on business and commercial litigation. The jurisdictional amount in controversy required to have a case heard in the Commercial Division varies among these Commercial Division courts, ranging from $50,000 in Albany and Onondaga Counties to $500,000 in New York County, but the Commercial Division rules (Section 202.70) are otherwise uniform.[11]

With respect to criminal cases, the Criminal Branch of Supreme Court tries felony cases in the five counties of New York City, whereas they are primarily heard by the County Court elsewhere.[12] Misdemeanor cases, and arraignments in almost all cases, are handled by lower courts: the New York City Criminal Court; the District Court in Nassau County and the five western towns of Suffolk County; city courts; and justice courts, and so on.

Structure

Appellate Division
Main article: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Second Department

Appeals from Supreme Court decisions, as well as from the Surrogate's Court, Family Court, and Court of Claims, are heard by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division. This court is intermediate between the New York Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals.

There is one Appellate Division, which for administrative purposes comprises four judicial departments.[13]

Decisions of the Appellate Division department panels are binding on the lower courts in that department, and also on lower courts in other departments unless there is contrary authority from the Appellate Division of that department.[14][15]

Appellate terms

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in each judicial department is authorized to establish "appellate terms".[16] An appellate term is an intermediate appellate court that hears appeals from the inferior courts within their designated counties or judicial districts, and are intended to ease the workload on the Appellate Division and provide a less expensive forum closer to the people.[16]

Appellate terms are located in the 1st and 2nd Judicial Departments only, representing Downstate New York.[17] These hear appeals from the New York City Civil Court, New York City Criminal Court, City Courts in the 1st and 2nd Departments, and District Court. (City Courts in other departments appeal to the County Courts instead.)[18]

The 1st Department has a single Appellate Term covering Manhattan and The Bronx.[19][20] The 2nd Department has two Appellate Terms. The Appellate Term for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts covers Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and generally sits at 141 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. The Appellate Term for the 9th and 10th Judicial Districts covers Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Putnam Counties; it generally rotates between the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, the Nassau County Supreme Court Building in Mineola, and the Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip. They occasionally sit at other locations within their jurisdiction.[19][21][22]

Appellate terms consist of between three and five justices of the Supreme Court, appointed by the Chief Administrative Judge with the approval of presiding justice of the appropriate appellate division. The court sits in three-judge panels, with two justices constituting a quorum and being necessary for a decision.[16] Decisions by the Appellate Term must be followed by courts whose appeals lie to it.[23][24]

Criminal terms

In New York City, all felony cases are heard in criminal terms.[1]

The Criminal Term of the Supreme Court, New York County is divided into 1 all purpose part, 15 conference and trial parts, 1 youth part, 1 narcotics/sci part, 1 felony waiver/sci part, 1 integrated domestic violence part, and 16 trial parts, which include 3 Judicial Diversion Parts and 1 Mental Health Part.[25]

Civil terms

In New York City, all major civil cases are heard in civil terms.[1]

Administration
New York judicial districts

The court system is divided into thirteen judicial districts: seven upstate districts each comprising between five and eleven counties, five districts corresponding to the boroughs of New York City, and one district on Long Island.[26] In each judicial district outside New York City, an Administrator (or Administrative Judge if a judge) is responsible for supervising all courts and agencies, while inside New York City an Administrator (or Administrative Judge) supervises each major court.[27] Administrators are assisted by Supervising Judges who are responsible in the on-site management of the trial courts, including court caseloads, personnel, and budget administration, and each manage a particular type of court within a county or judicial district.[27] The Administrator is also assisted by the District Executive and support staff.[28] The district administrative offices are responsible for personnel, purchasing, budgets, revenue, computer automation, court interpreters, court security, and case management.[28] Opinions of the New York trial courts are published selectively in the Miscellaneous Reports.[29][30]

Judges

A judge of the New York Supreme Court is titled a justice.

Number of justices and assignments

The number of justices of the Supreme Court in each New York Supreme Court judicial district (including justices assigned to the Appellate Division) is set forth by the New York State Constitution. Once a decade, the state Legislature may increase the number of justices in any judicial district, but Article VI of the state Constitution sets a population-based cap on the number of justices in each district, based on census data.[31] As a result of the population-based cap, some areas have overloaded courts.[31] New York City has a cap of 171 justices (and only some of the New York Supreme Court justices in New York City serve in trial parts, with others assigned to the Appellate Division or the Appellate Term).[31] As a result, New York City has too few judges to handle New York City's caseload, which is more than 100,000 cases annually; the population-based formula in the state Constitution does not account for the millions of non-resident workers and visitors in the city, nor the 315,000 business associations that operate in the city.[31] Elected New York Supreme Court justices can be moved or temporarily reassigned anywhere in the state, although typically such moves or reassignments are within the judge's judicial district.[32]

To address the imbalance, the New York court system designates other courts' judges (such as those sitting on the lower-level New York City Civil Court, New York City Criminal Court, and New York City Family Court, as well as the statewide New York Court of Claims) as "acting" Supreme Court justices to serve on the New York Supreme Court in New York City.[31] A similar practice is done in the 9th Judicial District (which covers the New York suburban counties of Orange, Dutchess, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam), in which County and Family Court judges have been designed as acting Supreme Court justices, serving part-time on that court.[32] However, this practice also strains the resources of the courts that "lend" justices to the Supreme Court.[31]

Elections and terms
See also: Elections in New York

Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms.[33] Justices are nominated by judicial district nominating conventions, with judicial delegates themselves elected from assembly districts.[34] Some (political party) county committees play a significant role in their judicial district conventions, for example restricting nomination to those candidates that receive approval from a party screening committee.[35] Sometimes, the parties cross-endorse each other's candidates, while at other times they do not and incumbent judges must actively campaign for re-election. Judicial conventions have been criticized as opaque, brief and dominated by county party leaders.[36] In practice, most of the power of selecting justices belongs to local political party organizations, such as the Kings County Democratic County Committee (Brooklyn Democratic Party), which control the delegates.[37] The process was challenged in litigation which ultimately resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision in N.Y. State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres (2008), in which the justices unanimously upheld the constitutionality of New York's judicial election system.[38]

Mandatory retirement age

Under state law, New York Supreme Court justices have a mandatory retirement age: a justice's term ends, even if his or her 14-year term has not yet expired, at the end of the calendar year in which the justice reaches the age of 70.[33] However, an elected Supreme Court Justice may apply for a "certification" from the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to continue in office, without having to be re-elected, for three two-year periods, until final retirement at the end of the year in which the Justice turns 76.[39] A judge applying for certification to continue to serve must past cognitive tests, but OCA is not required to grant certification even if judges are capable.[39] In 2020, for example, OCA denied certification to 46 of the 49 judges who applied for it, citing budget cuts and a hiring freeze.[39][40]

These additional six years of service are available only for elected Supreme Court Justices, not for "Acting" Justices whose election or appointments were to lower courts.

A referendum to increase the retirement age to 80 for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges was defeated by New York votes in 2013.[41]

The Queens County Criminal Courts Building houses justices and courtrooms of the New York Supreme Court

Notable justices

History

The New York Supreme Court is the oldest Supreme Court with general original jurisdiction. It was established as the Supreme Court of Judicature by the Province of New York on May 6, 1691. That court was continued by the State of New York after independence was declared in 1776. It became the New York Supreme Court under the New York Constitutional Convention of 1846.

In November 2004, the court system merged the operations of two separate criminal courts—the Bronx County Criminal Court and the Criminal Term of Bronx County Supreme Court—into a single trial court of criminal jurisdiction known as the Bronx Criminal Division.[42][43]

References
  1. State of New York Judiciary Budget: FY 2014-15 (PDF). p. 18. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
  2. Schneider v. Aulisi Archived 2021-08-17 at the Wayback Machine, 307 N.Y. 376, 384, 121 N.E.2d 375 (1954).
  3. The New York State Courts: An Introductory Guide (PDF). New York State Office of Court Administration. 2016. pp. 1–3. OCLC 39042187. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  4. "N.Y. New York City Civil Court Law § 202". Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  5. Civil Practice Law and Rules article 78
  6. "Sporza v. German Savings Bank, 84 N.E. 406, 192 N.Y. 8". CourtListener.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  7. "Commercial Division - NY Supreme Court - New York County Home". www.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-02-26. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  8. "Commercial Division - NY Supreme Court - 7th Judicial District". www.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  9. "Supreme Court - Commercial Division - History". www.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  10. "Commercial Division - NY Supreme Court - Home". www.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  11. "PART 202. Uniform Civil Rules For The Supreme Court And The County Court | NYCOURTS.GOV". ww2.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-03-11. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  12. Stonecash, Jeffrey M. (2001). Governing New York State (4th ed.). SUNY Press. p. 172. ISBN 0-7914-4888-6. LCCN 00-032955.
  13. Mountain View Coach Lines v. Storms, 102 A.D.2d 663, 476 N.Y.S.2d 918 (2d Dept. 1984).
  14. Birnbaum, Edward L.; Belen, Ariel E.; Grasso, Carl T. (2012). New York Trial Notebook (6th ed.). James Publishing. pp. 1–23. ISBN 978-1-58012-104-0. Archived from the original on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  15. Duffy v. Horton Memorial Hospital, 66 N.Y.2d 473, 497 N.Y.S.2d 890 (1985); Mountain View Coach Lines v. Storms, 102 A.D.2d 663, 476 N.Y.S.2d 918 (2d Dept. 1984).
  16. "New York State Constitution, Article IV, Section 8: Appellate terms of supreme court; composition and jurisdiction". NY State Senate. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  17. Galie & Bopst 2012, p. 177.
  18. "A court system for the future: the promise of court restructuring in New York State" (PDF). New York State Unified Court System. February 2007. p. 18, 27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  19. "New York's Appellate Terms: A Manual for Practitioners". New York State Bar Association. July 2014. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  20. "Appellate Term | NYCOURTS.GOV". ww2.nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  21. "Appellate Division - Second Judicial Department FAQs". nycourts.gov. Q2 and Q41. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  22. "Appellate Term - Directions". nycourts.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  23. 28 NY Jur 2d, Courts and Judges § 220, at 274 [1997]
  24. Yellow Book of NY L.P. v. Dimilia, 188 Misc.2d 489, 729 N.Y.S.2d 286 (2001)
  25. "Supreme Court, Criminal Branch, New York County". New York State Office of Court Administration. Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  26. Judiciary Law § 140. "The state is hereby divided into thirteen judicial districts, [...]"
  27. "Court Administration". New York State Office of Court Administration. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  28. "9th Judicial District". New York State Office of Court Administration. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  29. Gibson & Manz 2004, p. 153.
  30. Gibson & Manz 2004, p. 151.
  31. Resources: The Constitutional Limit on the Number of Justices in the Supreme Court, Fund for Modern Courts.
  32. Heather Yakin, Local district Supreme Court imbalance concerns lawyers, Times Herald-Record (September 22, 2022).
  33. Local Government Handbook (PDF) (7th ed.). New York State Department of State. 2018. p. 25-26.
  34. New York City Bar Association Council on Judicial Administration (March 2014). Judicial Selection Methods in the State of New York: A Guide to Understanding and Getting Involved in the Selection Process (PDF). New York City Bar Association. pp. 23–27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  35. NYC Bar 2014, pp. 16–18.
  36. Williams, Milton L. (19 September 2012). "A better way to pick New York judges". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  37. Marks, Alexandra (12 August 2003). "In Brooklyn, fixing a 'corrupt' court system". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  38. Linda Greenhouse, Justices Uphold New York's Judge System, New York Times (January 17, 2008).
  39. David Brand, 'Frankly shocking' - Association of Supreme Court Justices slams OCA decision to cut judges and staff, Queens Eagle (October 10, 2020).
  40. Brian Lee, Hochul Vetoes Measure Aimed at Easing Certification of Older Judges, New York Law Journal (January 3, 2023).
  41. James C. McKinley Jr., Plan to Raise Judges' Retirement Age to 80 Is Rejected, New York Times (November 6, 2013).
  42. The Bronx Criminal Division: Merger After Five Years (PDF). New York State Unified Court System. October 2009. OCLC 491295164. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-11-27.
  43. Report on the Merger of the Bronx Supreme and Criminal Courts (PDF). Association of the Bar of the City of New York. June 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-11-27.

Further reading
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