HEARD AND DETERMINED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. MARCUS T. HUN, REPORTER. VOLUME VIII. 1874. NEW YORK: BANKS & BROTHERS, LAW PUBLISHERS, ALBANY: 473 & 475 BROADWAY. BODLEIAN 31 JUL 62 LIBRARY Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, BY BANKS & BROTHERS, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. THE hope of relieving the courts and the profession from the further continuance of the serious evils, existing in the present mode of reporting its decisions, has induced my acceptance of the office of Reporter for the Supreme Court. On my appointment, in January, under chapter 99 of the Laws of 1869, I prepared and submitted to the justices, appointed to hold the General Terms of the Supreme Court in the several departments, and to the Bar Association of New York City, a bill, by the provisions of which, the power to appoint a reporter of that court was given to its justices. This bill was presented to the legislature, accompanied by letters from the justices of every department in the State, and by the certificate of the Hon William M. Evarts and others, representing the Bar Association of New York City, approving of its provisions and asking for its passage. Believing that an act which the legislature was required by the Constitution to pass,* and which was called for by the concurrent voice of both the court and the profession, could not fail to become a law, I hesitated to commence the publication of a series of reports, as my term of office would cease on its passage. The influence of gentlemen, now engaged in the publication of unauthorized reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court, was successfully used to defeat this legislation, after the bill had passed the Senate and had been reported by the Judiciary Committee of the House. As for the present, at least, it is impossible to give to the court the appointment of its reporter, I have *Const., § 23, art. VI. |