142 N.Y.S. 267 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
This action was commenced in the City Court on the 27th day of November, 1911, to recover the sum of $5,000 for personal injuries. It was tried in the City Court, and on the 30th of January, 1913, a verdict was rendered therein in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $5,000. The entry of judgment was deferred, evidently on account of the decision in Lewkowicz v. Queen Aeroplane Co. (154 App. Div. 142; affd., 207 N. Y. 290), by which it was held that the City Court was without jurisdiction to enter a judgment for more than $2,000 and that the Legislature could not confer jurisdiction upon it to grant judgment for a greater amount, and that chapter 569 of the Laws of 1911 (amdg. Code Civ. Proc. § 315 et seq.), designed to extend its jurisdiction to enter judgment for $5,000, was unconstitutional. The Legislature thereupon enacted chapter 210 of the Laws of 1913, which took effect immediately, and added section 319a to the Code of Civil Procedure, as follows:
“ The Supreme Court, at a term held in the first judicial district, must, on the motion of any party, by an order made at any time before the entry of judgment, remove to itself an action brought in the City Court of the City of New York in the following cases:
“ 1. An action to foreclose or enforce a lien, for a sum exceeding two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest, upon one or more chattels.
“ 2. An action wherein the complaint demands judgment for a sum of money only, exceeding two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and costs as taxed; except where the action is brought upon a bond or undertaking given in an action or special proceeding in the same court, or before a justice thereof; or to recover damages for a breach of promise of marriage; or where it is a marine cause, as that expression is defined in section three hundred and seventeen of this Code.
“ 3. An action to recover one or more chattels the aggregate value of which exceeds two thousand dollars.
*425 “ Upon the entry of the order of removal in the office of the clerk of the county of New York, the City Court shall proceed no further therein, and the clerk of the City Court must forthwith deliver to the clerk of the county of New York all papers filed therein, and certified copies of all minutes and entries relating thereto, which must be filed, entered or recorded, as the case requires, in the office of the clerk of the county of New York, and thereupon the Supreme Court shall proceed in said action as though said action had been commenced in said Supreme Court, and all proceedings had in the City Court prior to the entry of said order of removal shall be of like force and effect as though had in the Supreme Court.”
Thereafter, and on the 26th day of April, 1913, on motion duly made by the plaintiff, pursuant to this new section, the action was transferred to the Supreme Court.
The point presented by the appeal is whether the plaintiff, on having the case transferred to the Supreme Court, is entitled to retain the benefit of the trial in the City Court, or whether the action must be retried de novo. Counsel for the plaintiff relies upon the letter of the statute and contends that it relates merely to procedure and that, therefore, it was competent for the Legislature to make it retroactive, and that it is only necessary for him to make an appropriate motion for leave to enter judgment on the verdict. It was held in Lewkowicz v. Queen Aeroplane Co. (supra) that the Legislature, prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1894, by which (Art. 6, § 18) it was prohibited from creating any inferior or local court with greater jurisdiction than that conferred on County Courts by the Constitution, had, within its constitutional power, conferred jurisdiction upon the City Court by the subject-matter of actions, instead of limiting its jurisdiction by the amount demanded in the complaint; and had merely limited the j urisdiction of that court with respect to the amount for which a judgment could be entered. (See, also, Ralli v. Pearsall, 69 App. Div. 254; Heffron v. Jennings, 66 id. 443; Roof v. Meyer, 8 Civ. Proc. Rep. 60.) There is, therefore, some room for argument that the City Court had jurisdiction to try the action and to receive a verdict for more than $2,000 therein, and that the only disability is with respect to the entry of judgment on the verdict; and doubtless that is
If the statute in question requires that construction it would, to that extent at least, be unconstitutional. In order to sustain the statute it should be construed as authorizing only what it was competent for the Legislature to authorize in the premises. Therefore, it should be given effect as authorizing the transfer to the Supreme Court of causes which were pending in the City Court untried and, perhaps, any that may hereafter be brought in that court by mistake, where the motion is made before trial, or which had been tried in reliance upon the validity of the enactment, which has been declared unconstitutional, enlarging the jurisdiction of the City Court so as to authorize the entry of a judgment for $5,000, where the plaintiff prefers to have a new trial in the Supreme Court rather than to have his judgment limited to $2,000. The learned court at Special Term was, therefore, right in directing that the cause be placed upon the calendar.
It follows that the order should be affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
Ingraham, P. J., McLaughlin, Clarke and Scott, JJ„ concurred.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.