101 N.Y.S. 295 | N.Y. App. Term. | 1906
The sole question involved in this appeal is whether the City Court of New York has jurisdiction over actions wherein the city of New York is a party defendant. In considering the question.of the present jurisdiction of the City Court, it is necessary to review the history of the various legislative acts conferring jurisdiction upon that court. The City Court of the city of New York is not a constitutional court, being nowhere referred to in the State Constitution, and the Legislature has been expressly empowered by the Constitution to create inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction in the cities. Const. 1846, art. VI, § 14; Const. 1869, art. VI, § 19; Const. 1894, art. VI, § 18. The Legislature, therefore, may, from time to time, increase or diminish the jurisdiction of such inferior local courts by adding to or excluding therefrom any designated class of cases or causes of action; in other words, the jurisdiction of the City Court could, from time to time, be limited and restricted or enlarged with respect to subject-matter, amount and persons. Bretz v. Mayor, 6 Robt. 325; Curtin v. Barton, 139 N. Y. 505. Beginning with the Assistant Justice’s Court and extending for more than a century, the jurisdiction of the City Court of New York has been gradually increased in amount. The old Justice’s Court, one of its predecessors, was renamed the Marine Court by chapter 71 of the Laws of 1819. In 1858, by chapter 334 of the Laws of. that year, it was provided (§ 2) : “ The Marine Court of the city of New York shall hereafter have no jurisdiction in actions against The Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York, in which the. amount claimed by the plain
A consideration of all the legislation affecting both the jurisdiction of the City Court and that of the other courts of the city leaves no other conclusion than that the City Court of ¡New York has no present jurisdiction of actions wherein the city of ¡New York is a party defendant.
Judgments reversed, with costs, and judgments absolute in favor of defendant ordered, with costs.
Gildebsleeve and Dttgro, JJ., concur.
Judgments reversed, with costs, and judgments absolute' in favor of defendant ordered, with costs.