Peebles v. Rogers

5 How. Pr. 208
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1850
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 5 How. Pr. 208 (Peebles v. Rogers) 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
Peebles v. Rogers, 5 How. Pr. 208 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1850).

Opinion

Cady, Justice.

The attorney for the plaintiff objects to the ser» vice of the papers, as they were mailed at Amsterdam, although the defendant’s attorney resides at Port Jackson, and he refers to the case of Schenck vs. McKie (4 How. Pr. R. 246). In that case the papers were not received until the time to answer had expired, unless the service was deemed to have been made when [210]*210the papers were deposited in the post office. As I understand the case cited, it only shows, that papers will not he deemed to he served when deposited in a post office, unless deposited in the post office in the place where the attorney resides who makes the service. If he deposites them in another post office he takes on himself the hazard of their being received in time by his ad-, versary. If received in time no matter where they were mailed; that the order of Judge Belding was received in time is not disputed in this case.

The attorney for the plaintiff insists that Judge Belding had no authority to grant the order, as the place for trial designated in the complaint, was the county of Otsego and he resided in the county of Montgomery. The attorney for the plaintiff has referred to the case of Eddy vs. Howlett (2 Code Reporter, 76), as an authority for saying that the order granted by Judge Belding was a nullity; but as I understand that case, it does not prove that Judge Belding acted without authority.

In that case a county judge had granted an injunction by order, as a provisional remedy, and he had no authority to grant such an order except it was given to him by the Code. In that case, the injunction was granted by a county judge of the county of Kings, in an action triable in the city of New York. The case does not show whether the motion for the injunction was made upon notice or without notice; but whether it was made upon, or without notice, section 401 of the Code proved it void.

By that section it is enacted that “an application for an order is a motion,” and that “motions may be made in the first judicial district to a judge or justice out of court except for a new trial on the merits,” and that “motions must be within the district in which the action is triable, or in the county adjoining that in which it is triable, except that where the action is triable in the first judicial district, the motion must be made therein.” There is nothing in this part of the section which limits it to motions made upon notice and if it includes motions whether made upon notice or without notice, the injunction was granted without authority, as the motion for it was not made in the first judicial district.

[211]*211The other part of the section is as follows: “Orders made out of court, without notice, may he made by any judge of the Court, in any part of the state; and they may also he made by a county judge of the county where the action is triable, except to stay proceedings after verdict”-

If the motion for an injunction in the case of Eddy vs. Howlett was made without notice, then the county judge of the county of Kings had no authority to hear the motion or grant the order, as the action was triable in the city of New York, and he had no authority hut by the Code That case was no doubt correctly decided, but it did not necessarily call for the construction of the 29th section of the judiciary act or any part of the Code except section 401.

I do not regard that case as an authority for saying that the order made by Judge Belding was void. No county judge has power to grant an injunction as a provisional remedy except by the Code, but a county judge has power, independent of the Code, to grant an order extending the time in which to answer.

By 2 R. S., 279, section 18, Supreme Court Commissioners were required to perform all the duties and to execute every act, power and trust which a justice of the Supreme Court might perform out of court in all civil cases, except as therein otherwise provided; and by section 32, page 281, the same power is given to the judges of the county courts, being of the degree of counsellor in the Supreme Court.

By the 8th section of the 14th article of the Constitution of 1846, the office of Supreme Court Commissioner was abolished, and that may have been understood as taking from county judges all power to do anything in relation to motions in the Supreme Court; but by the 29th section of “ an act in relation to the judiciary,” passed 12th May 1847, it is enacted that “county judges, in their respective counties shall have power to perform all the duties and do all the acts now required to be done and performed by the judges of the county courts when not holding county courts, or any one or more of them, at chambers or otherwise, so far as those acts and duties are consistent with the [212]*212constitution and the provisions of this act.” At the time this enactment was made, judges of county courts, if of the degree of counsellor in the Supreme Court were required to perform all the duties and to execute every act, power and trust which a justice of the Supreme "Court might perform out of court; and they must now have all the powers granted by the act of the 12th of May 1847, unless the 29th section of that act has been repealed in Whole or in parb I can discover no act which in terms repeals that section in whole or in parb

' What is the effect of the words “in their respective counties” in that section? Do those import any thing more than would have been implied without them, that the judges of the county courts can not perform official duties out of their respective coun-1 ties? They are local officers (12 Wend. 139, Jackson vs. Lake).

Although a county judge must perform his official duties within his county, yet his acts when done, may have effect in any and all parts of the state. Before the code took effect, a county judge "might have signed a judgment record in the Supreme Court, no matter where the venue in the action was laid, or where the record was to be filed. He could perform that duty only in his own county, but the record when filed and the judgment when docketed would be a lien on the lands of the debtor in every county in the state to which a transcript of the judgment-should be sent. Such judges could take the acknowledgment of bail in actions in the Supreme Court, and the acknowledgment of the satisfaction of judgments in the Supreme Court,

The 24th section of the judiciary act required that a general term of the Supreme Court organized by that act, should be held at the Capitol in the city of Albany, amongst other things “to establish, revise and alter the rules Of the said court;-” and in Obedience to that law a term of the Supreme Court was held, and the rules established, revised and altered; and by the 89th, 90th and 91st rules then adopted, the fact that there were officers other than the justices of the Supreme Court who had authority to grant orders in actions pending in the Supreme Court, was fully recognized. The office of Supreme Court Commissioner was [213]*213abolished, but there were then county judges, and the 29th section of the judiciary act was then in full force, and they were the officers to whom the above rules in fact referred.

How far has the Code repealed or modified the said 29th section? There is no allusion in the Code to that section, yet if there be any enactments in the Code in direct conflict with it, those enactments being the last expression of the legislative will, must be regarded as the law.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Van Aernam v. Winslow
35 N.W. 381 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1887)
Ellison v. Lindsley
33 N.J. Eq. 258 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1880)
Hawes v. Barr
7 Rob. 452 (The Superior Court of New York City, 1868)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
5 How. Pr. 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peebles-v-rogers-nysupct-1850.