| "Appellate
Division, Third Department, One Hundred Years of Judicial Service" | |||
|
The Appellate Division hears appeals directly from the Supreme Court, County Courts, Family Courts, Surrogate s Courts, and the Court of Claims. The Appellate Division, and especially the Third Department because of its location in the State s capital, also hears appeals from decisions by State agencies.
The Supreme Court, of which the Appellate Division is a part, is the State s principal trial court with a branch in each of New York s 62 counties. The Justices of the Supreme Court are elected to 14-year terms by the voters of their respective judicial  Court House, Kingston, Ulster County, circa 1914
districts; there are 12 such districts in New York State. The Justices of the Appellate Division are appointed by the Governor from among the Justices of the Supreme Court. The Governor also designates the Presiding Justice in each Department. All Supreme Court Justices have a mandatory retirement age of 70. Retired Justices may be certified for additional service on the Supreme Court or the Appellate Division for two-year periods. No Justice may serve past the age of 76. Ten Justices now sit on the Third Department. As a division of the New York State Supreme Court, the origins of the Appellate Division can be traced back directly to 1691. In that year, the Colonial Assembly, organized under English rule, established the Supreme Court of Judicature, the antecedent of today's Supreme Court. Intermediate |
appellate jurisdiction was first lodged in the Supreme Court of Judicature, which was continued intact by the State's first Constitution, adopted at Kingston in 1777. Such jurisdiction was next
lodged in the eight General Terms of Supreme Court by the Constitution of 1846. After the adoption of a reformed judiciary article of the Constitution in 1870, the State was divided into four judicial departments, the direct predecessors of today's four Appellate Division Departments. The Third Department was composed of the same three judicial districts (the Third, Fourth, and Sixth) and counties as it is today. Four of the Third Department's first five Justices served on the reformed General Term after 1870.
The present Appellate Division, which supplanted the General Terms, was established by the Constitutional Convention of 1894. The person credited with formulating the Appellate Division framework was Elihu Root, chairman of the Convention's Judiciary Committee and later a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize after serving as both United States Secretary of War and Secretary of State.
|
||
 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York | |||
