AN ACT

Making additions and amendments to the code of procedure.*

The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

§ 1. The act to simplify and abridge the practice pleadings and proceedings of the court of this State, passed at the last session of the Legislature, is designated as the Code of Procedure.

§ 2. The word "section," as used in this act, signifies a section of the Code of Procedure, unless otherwise specified.

§ 3. Section 36 is amended, so as to read as follows: § 36. An issue of fact joined in a county court, before the first day of July 1848, or then pending in that court on appeal, may be tried by a jury.

This section is necessary, to provide for existing issues in a county court; the code having provided only for issues subsequently joined. The next two sections depend upon this, and explain themselves.

* The parts in italics are new; and section 8 is new in its application of similar provisions in the code, to justices' and other inferior courts.

§ 4. Section 37 is amended so as to read as follows: § 37. When a trial by jury is authorised by the last section, or shall be ordered by the court pursuant to section 35, the same may be had by a jury, drawn from the panel of jurors attending the court of sessions of the county, for trials, or if no trial jury for that court be ordered as provided in the next section, then such trial shall be had by a jury to be drawn, by a written order of the county judge, to be filed with the clerk, from the jury box of the county, and summoned in the same manner as for the trial of issues at a circuit court, except that only eighteen jurors shall be drawn and summoned. The practice appertaining to jury trials, and to the verdict of the jury, and the proceedings thereon, as in this act provided, shall in all respects apply to such trial.

§ 5. Section 38 is amended, so as to read as follows:' § 38. No jury shall hereafter be summoned for a county court, except as provided in the last section; nor shall a grand or trial jnry be summoned for a court of sessions, (except in the city and county of New-York,) unless so directed by the board of supervisors, or the court of sessions, of the county, to be made and filed with the clerk, at least thirty days before the drawing. A court of sessions may be held at the same time with a general term of the county court, and a jury` may be ordered and summoned therefor, accordingly.

§ 6. Subdivision 2 of section 39 is amended, so as to read as follows:

2. To all other actions, where all the defendants

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shall reside, or be personally served with the summons, within those cities respectively, and to actions arising on contract, for the recovery of money only, against defendants jointly liable, where any of them shall reside, or be personally served with the summons, within those cities respectively.

This section extends the jurisdiction of the superior court and common pleas of New-York to actions against joint debtors when some of them only reside in the city or are served there. It frequently happens, that one party resides in New-York and another in Brooklyn, or in the country. There seems no good reason, why such a case shonld be forced into the supreme court.

§ 7. Section 46 is amended, so as to read as follows: § 46. Justices of the peace shall have civil jurisdiction, in the following actions, and no other:

1. An action arising on contract for the recovery of money only, if the sum claimed do not exceed one hundred dollars;

2. An action for damages for an injury to the person, or to real property, or for taking, detaining, or injuring, personal property, if the damages claimed do not exceed one hundred dollars;

3. An action for a penalty, not exceeding one hundred dollars, given by statute;

4. An action commenced by attachment of property, as now provided by statute; if the debt or damages claimed do not exceed one hundred dollars;

5. An action upon a bond, conditioned for the payment of money, not exceeding one hundred dollars, though the penalty exceed that sum; the judgment to [SECOND REP.]

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be given for the sum actually due. Where the payments are to be made by instalments, an action may be brought for each instalment, as it shall become due;

6. An action upon a surety bond taken by them, though the penalty or amount claimed exceed one hundred dollars.

But nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive justices of the peace, of the power to take and enter judgment on the confession of a defendant, where the amount confessed shall not exceed two hundred and fifty dollars.

To remove a doubt expressed by some persons, respecting the jurisdiction of justices.

§ 8. Section 57 is amended, so as to read as follows: § 57. The following rules shall be observed in the courts of justices of the peace.

1.

The pleadings in these courts are;

1. The complaint by the plaintiff, stating the cause of action;

2. The answer by the defendant, stating the grounds of the defence;

3. A reply by the plaintiff, denying any new matter stated in the answer, which is not a denial of the complaint.

2..

The pleadings may be oral, or in writing; if oral, the substance of them shall be entered by the justice in his docket; if in writing, they shall be filed by him, and a reference to them shall be made in the docket

3.

The complaint shall state, in a plain and direct manner, the facts constituting the cause of action.

4.

The answer may contain a denial of any material facts stated in the complaint, which the defendant believes to be untrue, and also a statement, in a plain and direct manner, of any other facts, constituting a defence.

5.

If the defendant intend to controvert the truth of any of the statements contained in the complaint, he must in his answer, deny them.

6.

If the plantinff intend to controvert the truth of any of the statements in the answer, except those in denial of the complaint, he shall, by a reply, deny them.

7.

Pleadings are not required to be in any particular form, but must be such, as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended.

8.

Either party may object to the pleading of his adversary, that it is not sufficiently explicit, to enable him to understand it, or that it contains no cause of action or defence, although it be taken as true.