*

57,389

DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That, on tne seventh day of May, in the thirty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, LEWIS MOREL of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words and figures following, to wit:

"New York Term Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Suprem.e Court of that State. Second edition, with corrections and additions. By George Caines, Counsellor at Law. Volume I."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entiti d "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled "An act supplemer tary to an act, entitled 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

THERON RUDD,

Clerk of the District of New York.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, by

BANKS, GOULD & CO.,

in the Clerk's Office, in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

JOHN W. AMERMAN, PRINTER,

No. 47 Cedar St., N. Y.

PREFACE

TO THE

THIRD EDITION

THE State of New York, from the first organization of her judiciary, has attracted, both in England and the United States, profound attention and deference, for her wise and sagacious laws, and the dignity, learning, and uprightness of her courts. Her legal decisions have always been considered the highest authority. Her law reports are perennial fountains of an enlightened jurisprudence; and probably no case of any magnitude in any section of this country, would be discussed, much less decided, without reference to them.

Such being the importance and utility of the New York reports, it is desirable that the sets should be complete, from the earliest period down to the present time; and the publishers have great pleasure in announcing that the present issue of Caines will accomplish this result.

The reports of Mr. Caines, although among the earliest of similar publications in this country, have an extended and permanent reputation. Their celebrity is owing in part to the great learning and ability of the court, composed of such judges as Kent, Lewis, Thompson, Van Ness and Spencer, and in part to the accuracy and perspicuity of the talented reporter himself.

The original work of Mr. Caines was enriched by him, with copious notes, of much interest, and great practical

value. These notes are retained without alteration in the present edition; and other notes supplementary to those already in the work have been added, with a view of introducing all the latest decisions.

In presenting to the public a third edition of Caines, the publishers have only responded to repeated and urgent calls for it by the profession; and they now issue it in such a way as to enable them to supply the demand, however great.

New York, March 1st, 1854

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A SECOND edition of the following reports being called for, they are now offered to the profession with some alterations, and, it is hoped, with some amendments also. To remove every fault, by casting the whole work in a new mould, has not been attempted. There are therefore imperfections in the original execution which still remain. These were the necessary results of a mistaken deference to the statement of the cases as furnished on the arguments, and a fear of expunging from the opinions of the bench, any part of what had been publicly delivered.

Encouraged by legislative patronage, and a permission to exercise his own discretion, the author, in the second volume, began a little to dress the cases in his own language, and to discard from the opinions of the judges the statement of facts, by which they were, when delivered, in general preceded. It is therefore believed, that in the second and third volumes the defects of the first have been, for the most part, avoided; and, it is presumed, that even in the first, they are now in a great degree corrected.

The marginal extracts of the principles of the decisions have been left untouched. They have been, on mature reflection, deemed far more useful than the algebraical report of the case, through the aid of all the letters in the alphabet, lately adopted by Mr. East and others, concluding with a "held," &c. leaving to the student the labor of separating the gold from the dross.

The decisions referred to from the MSS. of Kent, Ch. J. were taken by the author from manuscript notes lent to him, while reporter, by the Chief Justice in the intervals