AN ACT To amend the act entitled “ An act to Simplify

and Abridge the Practice, Pleadings, and Proceedings of the Courts of this State," passed April 12, 1848.

Passed April 11, 1849. The act entitled “ An act to simplify and abridge the practice, pleadings, and proceedings of the courts of this State," passed April 12, 1848, is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

AN ACT

To Simplify and Abridge the Practice, Pleadings,

and proceedings of the Courts of this state. WHEREAS, it is expedient, that the present forms of actions

and pleadings in cases at common law should be abolished, that the distinction between legal and equitable remedies should no longer continue, and that an uniform course of proceeding, in all cases, should be established: Therefore,

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

GENERAL DEFINITIONS AND DIVISIONS.

Division of reinodies.

Definition of an action.

Amended 1849.

Definition of a special proceeding Division of actions into civil and criminal.

Definition of a crimi

Amended 1849.

a

Definition of a civil action. Civil and criminal remedies

SECTION 1. Remedies in the courts of justice are divided into,

1. Actions ;
2. Special proceedings.

§ 2. An action is an ordinary proceeding in a court of justice, by which a party prosecutes another party for the enforcement or protection of a right, the redress or prevențion of a wrong, or the punishment of a public offence.

$ 3. Every other remedy is a special proceeding.
§ 4. Actions are of two kinds :
1. Civil;
2. Criminal.

$ 5. A criminal action is prosecuted by the people of nal action. the state, as a party, against a person charged with a pub

lic offence, for the punishment thereof.

§ 6. Every other is a civil action.

§ 7. Where the violation of a right admits of both a

civil and criminal remedy, the right to prosecute the one not merged is not merged in the other.

$ 8. This act is divided into two parts:

The first relates to the courts of justice, and their jurisdiction;

The second relates to civil actions commenced in the courts of this state, after the first day of July, 1848, except when otherwise provided therein, and is distributed into fifteen titles. The first four relate to actions in all the courts of the state, and the others, to actions in the supreme court, in the county courts, in the superior court of the city of New York, in the court of common pleas for the city and county of New York, in the mayors' courts of cities, and in the recorders' courts of cities, and to appeals to the court of appeals, to the supreme court, to the county courts, and to the superior court of the city of New-York.

other.

Subjects" embraced in this act.

Amended 1849.

PART I.

OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE, AND THEIR JURIS

DICTION.
TITLE I. OF THE COURTS IN GENERAL.

II. · OF THE COURT OF APPEALS.
III. OF THE SUPREME COURT; CIRCUIT COURTS; AND Couets of

OYER AND TERMINER.
IV. OF THE COUNTY Courts.
V. OF THE SUPERIOR Court, And Court Of Common PLEAS

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND THE MAYORS' AND

RECORDERS' COURTS IN OTHER CITIES.
VI. OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
VII. OF JUSTICES AND OTHER INFERIOR COURTS IN CITIES.

al courts of this State.

1849.

TITLE I.
Of the Courts, in General.
SECTION 9. The several courts of this state.

10. Their jurisdiction generally. $ 9. The following are the courts of justice of this state: The sever1. The court for the trial of impeachments. 2. The court of appeals. The

Amended court. supreme 4. The circuit courts. 5. The courts of oyer and terminer. 6. The county courts. 7. The courts of sessions. 8. The courts of special sessions. 9. The surrogates' courts. 10. The courts of justices of the peace. 11. The superior court of the city of New-York.

12. The court of common pleas for the city and county of New-York.

13. The mayors' courts of cities.
14. The recorders' courts of cities.
15. The marine court of the city of New-York.
16. The justices' courts in the city of New-York.
17. The justices courts of cities.
18. The police courts.

Their juris § 10. These courts shall continue to exercise the jurisdiction generally. diction now vested in them respectively, except as other

wise prescribed by this act.

The rule is a familiar one that as to courts of general jurisdiction, their jurisdiction is to be presumed, while that of courts of inferior and limited jurisdiction must be shown by the party claiming under them, as their authority will not be presumed from their judgments. Harrington vs. The People, 6 Barb. 607; Noves vs. Butler, id. 613; Doty. agt. Brown, 4 How. 429.

TITLE II.

Of the Court of Appeals.
SECTION 11. Its jurisdiction.

12. May reverse, affirm or modify judgment or order appealed

from. 13. Terms of the court. Preference of causes. 14. Number of judges who may give judgment. 15. Sheriffs to provide rooms, &c., for court. 16. Court may be adjourned to places other than those desig

nated by law.

Its jurisdiction.

Amended

§ 11. The court of appeals shall have exclusive jurisdiction to review, upon appeal, every actual determination hereafter

made at a general term, by the supreme court, or by the supe1849, 1851, rior court of the city of New York, or court of common pleas

for the city and county of New York, in the following cases, and no other :

1. In a judgment in an action commenced therein, or brought there from another court; and upon the appeal from such judgment, to review any intermediate order involving the merits, and necessarily affecting the judgment :

2, In an order affecting a substantial right, made in such action, when such order in effect determines the action, and prevents a judgment from which an appeal might be taken :

3. In a final order, affecting a substantial right made in a special proceeding, or upon a summary application, in an action, after judgment :

4. In an order granting a new trial, but such appeal shall not be allowed in an action originally commenced in a court of a justice of the peace, or in the marine court of the city of New