2. To try and determine any indictment found therein, or sent thereto by the court of oyer and terminer of the city and county of New-York, for a public offence not punishable with death: 3. To remove police justices and justices of the justices' courts in the city of New-York, and their clerks, after due notice and an opportunity of being heard in their defence, for causes to be stated in the order of removal: 4. In cases arising in the city and county of NewYork, such as are enumerated in subdivisions 4 to 11, both inclusive, of section 32. Substantially the same as 2 R. S. 3d ed., 288, sec. 50, except as to the third subdivision which is introduced for the reasons stated in the note to sec. 32, p. 21, 22. § 40. When an indictment is found in this court for an offence punishable with death, it must be sent to the next court of oyer and terminer of the city and county of New-York. Same 2 R. S., 3d ed., 274 sec. 6. § 41. This court must be held, except as provided in the next section, by the recorder or city judge of the city of New-York, or by one of the judges of the court of common pleas of that city, as the presiding judge, together with two of the aldermen of the city, designated as the common council, may by ordinance, prescribe. But it is the especial duty of the recorder or city judges to hold the court and preside therein. The existing statutory provisions on this subject are as follows: "The first judge of the county courts of the city and county of New-York, and the mayor, recorder, and aldermen of the said city, or any three of them, of whom the said first judge, mayor or recorder shall always be one, shall have power to hold courts of general sessions in and for the city and county of New-York. It shall be the special duty of the recorder of the city of New-York, to hold the said court of general sessions." 2 R. S, 3d ed., 288, sec. 48, 49. The section as proposed, is in conformity with the practice, as to the holding of this court, except that it gives the city judge concurrent powers with the recorder, and requires the aldermen who are to sit, to be designated by ordinance of the common council. This seems necessary to prevent many inconveniences and delays to which the court is now subjected, from the fact that no express regulation of the duty of the aldermen in this respect exists. § 42. When the court is convened for the purpose.of exercising the jurisdiction conferred by the third subdivision of section 32, it must be held by the recorder or city judge of the city of New-York, and at least one of the judges of the court of common pleas of that city, together with the mayor and aldermen thereof, or a majority of those officers then in office. The court, as constituted by this section, is precisely the same as the county court under the old constitution, by which these officers were triable. § 43. The court must be held on the first Monday of each month, and may be continued until the fourth Saturday thereafter, inclusive. Concurrent terms may also be held, as often as the recorder and city judge may from time to time, prescribe, by an order filed with the clerk. The first part of this section is the same as 2 R. S., 3d ed., 288, sec. 52, except that power is given to the court to sit until the fourth instead of the third Saturday, after its commencement. This is necessary, in consequence of the great amount of business in this court. The same reason has induced the Commissioners to recommend that power be given to hold concurrent terms. § 44. If the trial of a cause be commenced before the expiration of the term, the court may be continued beyond the term, till the completion of the trial, and the rendering of judgment on the verdict. Same as Laws of 1846, p. 4, ch. 2; to prevent a failure of justice, owing to the legal expiration of the term. This power has often been necessary in practice. 45. This court must be held at such place in the city of New-York, as now is or hereafter may be p scribed, by ordinance, by the common council of t city. This is in conformity with the existing statute; Laws of 1838, p. 297, ch. 297; except that it omits the provision that the "alteration of the place of holding such courts shall, before the same takes effect, be notified in one or more of the public newspapers printed in the said city, for the period of not less than four weeks." There appears to be no necessity for such a provision. TITLE V. OF THE CITY COURTS. SECTION 46. City courts established. 47. Their jurisdiction. 48. Indictments for offences punishable with death, to be sent to oyer and terminer. 49. Other indictments may be sent to oyer and terminer. 50. When indictments may be sent, by oyer and terminer, to a city court. 51. City courts, by whom held. 52. Removal of cause, when presiding judge disqualified. 53. Times and places of holding courts, continued as at present, to December 31, 1850. 54. Terms and times of holding courts, after that time. § 46. The courts known as the mayors' courts of the eities of Albany, Hudson and Troy, the recorders' courts the cities of Buffalo, Utica and Oswego, and the sky court of Brooklyn, are continued, with the crimi jurisdiction conferred upon them by the next four sections and no other: and shall be hereafter known as the city courts of those cities respectively. But nothing contained in this section affects their jurisdiction of actions or proceedings now pending therein. A leading feature of the plan of the Commissioners, in respect to the organization and jurisdiction of the courts, has from the first been to render them, where they were alike in their general principles, uniform in all their details. The courts which are enumerated in this section, as they now exist, are of this character. Their jurisdiction, in the main, is analogous, within their particular localities, to that formerly exercised by the courts of common pleas. And yet even a superficial examination of the statutes by which they were from time to time created, will show that in the details of their jurisdiction, the greatest conceivable dissimilarity exists. Mayor's court of Albany, 2 R. S., 3d ed. 294, 295, sec. 5, 6. The name of city court is also substituted, as being uniform, while at the same time it conveys a general idea of the object and character of these courts. § 47. When organized as provided in section 51, for the purpose of exercising criminal jurisdiction, these courts have jurisdiction, 1. To inquire by the intervention of a grand jury, of all public offences committed in the city in which the court is established: 2. To try and determine an indictment found therein, or sent thereto by the court of oyer and terminer of the county, for a public offence not punishable with death, committed in that city. The jurisdiction conferred by this section, is the same in the city in which the court is established, as that of the court of sessions, in the county, as provided by the second and third subdivisions of section 32. It is extended to all cases less than capital, for the reasons mentioned in the note to that section, p. 20, 21. § 48. When an indictment is found at a city court, for an offence punishable with death, the court must send it to the next court of oyer and terminer of the county. Taken from 2 R S., 3d ed 274, sec. 6, as applicable to to the courts of sessions. |