Court of Appeals, 1847-present

Under British colonial rule, appeals from the supreme court of judicature in New York were made to the royal governor and his council, sitting as a court later referred to as the court for the correction of errors and appeals. The court of last resort was the Privy Council, which met in London. The first State constitution in 1777 established the court for the trial of impeachments and correction of errors, replacing the governor and council as New York State's court of last resort. This court exercised final appellate and impeachment jurisdiction. Modeled after the British House of Lords, which served as Great Britain's court of last resort, the court consisted of the president of the senate (lieutenant governor), the senators, the chancellor (of the court of chancery), and the supreme court justices. The constitution directed the legislature to define details of court operation; a resulting 1784 law (Chapter 11) authorized the court to handle cases from the supreme court of judicature, the court of chancery, the court of probate, and the court of admiralty (except in cases of capture, which were handled by the federal courts). The law also established the court's basic operating procedures and directed the Council of Appointment to appoint a court clerk. Although legally constituted as one court, in practice it would have operated as two separate judicial bodies, an impeachment court and a court of last resort. The names "court for the trial of impeachments" and "court for the correction of errors" (or simply "court of errors") were used separately in legal documents and laws as well as in popular parlance. No impeachment proceedings occurred during the life of the court and therefore no impeachment records exist. Judicial reorganizations between 1784 and 1847 altered the scope of the court's jurisdiction. In 1789 the court of admiralty was abolished and its jurisdiction assumed by new federal courts established by the United States Constitution. In 1823 the court of probates was abolished and its appellate jurisdiction transferred to the court of chancery. Thereafter, the court of errors reviewed only cases from the principle courts of law (supreme court) and equity (court of chancery). The 1846 State constitution abolished the court and transferred its functions as a court of last resort to the newly established court of appeals. The impeachment function was transferred to the new court for the trial of impeachments. A law of 1847 (Chapter 280) implemented these constitutional provisions, mandating the transfer of all undecided court of errors cases and all court of errors records to the court of appeals effective July 1847. The court of appeals also assumed custody of most records of the abolished court of chancery. The court of appeals consisted of eight judges until reorganized by the Judiciary Article of 1869. The number of judges was then set at seven, with fourteen-year terms and mandatory retirement at age seventy. New judges were appointed in 1870. A Temporary Commission of Appeals, lasting five years, was set up to help dispose of the backlog of cases that had built up in the old court of appeals. Further steps were taken to reduce the backlog in 1888 when a constitutional amendment provided for a second division of the court of appeals consisting of seven supreme court justices designated by the governor to act as associate judges. This second division continued until the fourth State constitution of 1894 established an appellate division of the supreme court with intermediate appellate jurisdiction, hearing appeals previously heard in the supreme court. However, the governor retains authority to designate supreme court justices to serve as associate judges whenever the court of appeals needs assistance in disposing of a backlog of cases. The court of appeals retained its final appellate jurisdiction in the Judiciary Article of 1925. Another constitutional and statutory reorganization of the court system in 1962 (Chapters 684 and 685) established the unified court system in New York State. The chief judge of the court of appeals, along with the presiding justices of the four appellate divisions, comprised the Administrative Board of the Judicial Conference with responsibility for administering the unified court system. A 1978 law (Chapter 156) assigned to the chief judge of the court of appeals responsibility for the administrative supervision of the court system and, with the Administrative Board, for establishing statewide administrative standards and policies. The chief judge was to appoint a chief administrator of the courts (called the chief administrative judge of the courts if the incumbent is a judge) to direct the Office of Court Administration and supervise the administration and operation of the trial courts.