In re Lord

63 How. Pr. 97, 10 Abb. N. Cas. 293
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1882
StatusPublished

This text of 63 How. Pr. 97 (In re Lord) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Lord, 63 How. Pr. 97, 10 Abb. N. Cas. 293 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1882).

Opinion

Westbrook, J.

Upon the complaint of John B. Ingraham, Bernard Johnson, one of the justices of the peace of the town of Ulster, Ulster county, issued a warrant for the arrest of Loami Lord for a simple assault and battery, alleged to have been committed by said Lord upon the person of the complainant in November, 1881.

[98]*98When the accused was brought before the justice issuing the warrant, he tendered bail for bis appearance at the next court having jurisdiction of the offense, and refused to be tried at a court of special sessions.

The justice, however, whilst approving of the form of the bond, and the sufficiency of the sureties, held that the accused must be tried at a court of special sessions, by force of chapter 390 of the Laws of 1879, and therefore declined to accept bail and kept him in the custody of an officer for trial.

Lord then sued out a habeas corpus to release himself from imprisonment, and tenders bail for his appearance at the next .court of sessions to be held in the county to answer to the charge.

The question presented is: Could the justice hold him for trial by a court of special sessions, or should the bail tendered have been accepted? The answer depends upon the effect which the Code of Criminal Procedure has had upon the act of 1879. Has the latter been repealed or modified by the Code which took effect on the 1st day of September, 1881 ? Previous to that date, by chapter 390 of the Laws of 1879, “ courts of special session, except in the city of Albany and in the city and county of Hew York,” had “exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance -to hear and determine ” sundry cases, and among them, “ charges for assault and battery not alleged to have been committed riotously.” The language of the act which has just been given, is clear, and the court of appeals has, in People agt. Dutcher (83 N. Y., 240), construed it precisely as has been stated.

The act of 1879 is entitled “ An act extending the jurisdiction of courts of special sessions, except in the city of Albany, and in the city and county of Hew York,” and from such title as well as its provisions, it is evident that it is an ¡amendment of the general law of the state defining the juris•diction of those tribunals. The statutes of the state also, which give to special sessions their criminal powers, in force when the act of 1879 became a law, were applicable as that [99]*99of 1879, by its title and provisions was declared to be, to “ courts of special sessions, except in the city and county of New York, and the city of Albany ” (3 R. S. [6th ed.], 1004, sec. 1), and this consideration makes clear the soundness of the proposition just enunciated, that the law of 1879 was an amendment to, and became a part of the general criminal law of the state, and was not a mere local and special statute.

The Code of Criminal Procedure took effect, as has already been stated, on the 1st day of September, 1881, and by chapter 1 of its 6th,title, prescribes and defines the jurisdiction of “ the courts of special sessions, except in the city and county of New York, and the city of Albany,” and as it therefore relates to precisely the same subject as the act of 1879, and the general statutes of which that act became a part, it must repeal or supersede them. This follows from the fact that it is a new and revised declaration of the legislative will as to the jurisdiction of the same courts, which was designed to supplant and take the place of the old.

An examination of the chapter and title of the Code to which reference has just been made makes the repeal of the law of 1879 still more manifest. The fifty-sixth section declares what crimes may be tried by “ the courts of special sessions, except in the city and county of New York, and the city of Albany,” and among them is an assault not charged to have been committed riotously, or upon any publie officer-in the execution of his duties.”

The fifty-seventh section defines the offenses-which must be tried by such courts, or, in other words, those which such courts “ have, in the first instance, exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine.” There is a marked similarity between this section and the act of 1879, in regard to the exclusive jurisdiction attempted to be conferred by both, and such general similarity brings out the more sharply the omission, from such fifty-seventh section of the Code, of the crimes of simple assault and battery and petit larceny, not charged as a second offense.

[100]*100A strong argument against the continuation of the exclusive power of the special sessions in the first instance to try the accused for the crime alleged against him, as the act of 1879, if unrepealed and unaltered, confers, can be drawn from the fact the fifty-seventh section defines anew such exclusive powers, and omits that of which the defendant is charged. It is unnecessary, however, to amplify the point because the next section (the 58th) makes the whole matter clear, and to it attention is specially called.

That section expressly declares: “ Except as prescribed in the last section, the jurisdiction conferred upon courts of special sessions can be exercised only in the following cases: 1. When the party charged, upon his being brought before the magistrate, requests to be tried by such court. 2. When not having made such request, and after having been required by the magistrate to give bail for his appearance at the next court of special sessions in the county, he omits to do so for twenty-four hours.”

It is difficult, by argument, to make the legislative intent any more manifest than a simple reading of sections 56, 57 and 58 of the Code will effect. Briefly to recapitulate, however, it may be said section 56 declares what offenses are triable by courts of special sessions, other than those in the city and county of New York and the city of Albany. Section 57 enumerates those which they “ have, in the first instance, exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine; ” and section 58 expressly enacts, that with the exception of those which are mentioned in the fifty-seventh section, and which they must try and determine, their jurisdiction * * * can be exercised only ” : First. When the party elects to be tried by such court; and, second, when he does not so elect, but neglects for twenty-four hours to give bail for his appearance- at the next court of sessions in the county, after having been required so to do by the magistrate before whom he is accused.

It is clear, then, the act of 1879 is repealed because: First. [101]*101There has been by the Code a new definition and particularization of the powers and duties of the courts of special sessions of the state, except in the city and county of New York and the city of Albany, which was evidently designed, as manifested by its completeness and fullness, to supplant and take the place of the old upon the same subject; and because, second, an analysis of the new act shows that the exclusive jurisdiction conferred by that of 1879, to hear and determine, in the first instance, certain assaults and batteries and petit larcenies, is taken away and repealed, because: First: Those offenses are dropped from the section (the 57th) conferring exclusive jurisdiction upon those courts, and added to that which gives a jurisdiction to try them (the 56th), subject to the provisions of another (the 58th);

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Related

People Ex Rel. Comaford v. . Dutcher
83 N.Y. 240 (New York Court of Appeals, 1880)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 How. Pr. 97, 10 Abb. N. Cas. 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-lord-nysupct-1882.