New York Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the basic New York State trial court of general jurisidiction. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some of the smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties. All but the most populous counties are grouped into judicial districts from which the justices are elected, with unwritten agreements allotting the justice seats among the counties of the district.

In most states and the U.S. federal courts, "supreme court" is the name of the highest court in the state. The New York Supreme Court is a trial court, synonymous with the "district courts", "superior courts" or "circuit courts" of other states. The highest court in New York State is called "Court of Appeals."

New York County Supreme Court building at 60 Centre Street, from across Foley Square

The Supreme Court Today

The supreme court in New York County is located in several buildings in Manhattan. The civil branch is in several buildings near Foley Square: the main New York County Courthouse building at 60 Centre Street (see photo), and three others at 80 Centre Street (across Worth Street), 111 Centre Street, and 71 Thomas Street. The criminal branch is at 100 Centre Street, shared with the Manhattan Criminal Court, the Office of the District Attorney and other agencies, and at 111 Centre Street, shared with the New York County Civil Court. This is also true of the Supreme Court in Kings County and in Richmond County. In Richmond County several "Parts" of the Supreme Court are located in the former U.S. Navy Home Port (each Part is usually where one Supreme Court judge sits).

The State Supreme Court handles large civil cases, and also handles felony criminal cases within the five counties that make up New York City. Outside New York City, the County Courts handle felony criminal cases. Smaller civil cases and less serious criminal cases are handled in other courts: the Civil Court and Criminal Court in New York City; County and District Courts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island; and County, City, Town and Village Courts in the rest of the state. Certain specialized matters are handled by other courts; for example, probate matters are heard in Surrogate's Court, juvenile delinquency and child custody matters in Family Court, and tort and contract claims against the state for monetary damages in the Court of Claims. Although the New York Supreme Court in theory has unlimited general original jurisdiction over civil litigation, in practice it does not normally hear cases with lower monetary claims that are within the powers of a New York state trial court of limited jurisdiction such as County Court or N.Y.C. Civil Court. By statute, the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over three areas: matrimonial actions (such as for divorce or annulment), declaratory judgments, and so-called Article 78 actions, but effectively has exclusive jurisdication over other areas sounding in equity such as specific performance and rescission of contract, which have been defined by applicable caselaw as unsuitable for adjudication by the lower courts.

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

Appeals from Supreme Court decisions go to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which is New York's intermediate appellate court divided into four appellate departments. Notwithstanding the departments, the Appellate Division is one court, and its decisions are binding on all lower courts unless there is a conflict among the appellate departments. New York's highest appellate court is the Court of Appeals; appeals are taken from the four departments to the Court of Appeals; decisions from the Court of Appeals are binding throughout the state.

New York Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms. In practice, most of the power of selecting judges belongs to local political party organizations. Regardless of the term for which they are elected, justices retire at the end of the year in which they reach the age of seventy years, a replacement being chosen to a fresh 14-year term that November with effect from the start of the following year. Recently, a federal district court in Brooklyn declared the method of electing Supreme Court justices to be unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court stated: "A state may decide whether or not voters will be the best choosers of judges. But it may not say one thing – “The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors,” N.Y. Const. art. VI § 6(c) – and do quite another, as they have here by effectively transferring the power to choose major party leaders. Put simply . . . the state may not pass off the will of the party leaders as the will of the people. Because that is exactly what the New York judicial convention system does, it violates the First Amendment."

Trivia

The inscription on the front of the courthouse taken from a letter of George Washington to the Attorney General in 1789: "The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government."

External links

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