| "Appellate Division,
Second Department, 100th Anniversary " |
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changed, so that now the Second Department is disproportionately large. Over one-half of the population of the State now lives in the Second Department and about 42 percent of intermediate appellate cases are handled by the court.
The Early Years The first case that the court decided in 1896 was reported by Marcus T. Hun, and appears in the volume cited as 1 Appellate Division. It involved an action brought against the endorser of a promissory note, on an appeal from what was then called the Kings County Circuit (see, Kinsland Land Co. v Newman, 1 App Div 1). When the Appellate Division, Second Department, was established, it was housed in a courtroom in Brooklyn's Borough Hall. The grandeur of the court's prior trappings may still be seen in Borough Hall's refurbished ceremonial courtroom. In 1938, the present courthouse opened its doors. The Appellate Division was conceived as a court that had the jurisdiction to provide review for the vast majority of cases, leaving the Court of Appeals free to declare and settle the law. History has validated that design. In the ensuing one hundred years, the Appellate Division has heard a multitude of cases, both civil and criminal, under its broad power to review both legal and factual questions. During its first hundred years, the court has seen many milestones. Its first black Justice was appointed in 1980 and its first woman Justice was appointed in 1984. In April, 1994, a bench of the court was solely comprised of female Justices. This was the first time this had occurred in an appellate court in the history of the State of New York. 
The Court Today The Appellate Division, Second Department, today consists of twenty Justices, and is the busiest appellate court in the nation. Most of the Justices are appointed from the ten counties over which the court has jurisdiction; Kings, Queens, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland and Orange Counties. The court hears appeals from the Supreme Court, Surrogate's Court, the Court of Claims, County Court, Family Court and the Appellate Term. |
 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York |
