N.Y. Const. art. VI, § 4: Judicial departments; appellate divisions of supreme court and justices thereof; temporary designation of additional justices; transfer of appeals; jurisdiction

§ 4. a. The state shall be divided into four judicial departments. The

first department shall consist of the counties within the first judicial

district of the state. The second department shall consist of the

counties within the second, ninth, tenth and eleventh judicial districts

of the state. The third department shall consist of the counties within

the third, fourth and sixth judicial districts of the state. The fourth

department shall consist of the counties within the fifth, seventh and

eighth judicial districts of the state. Each department shall be bounded

by the lines of judicial districts. Once every ten years the legislature

may alter the boundaries of the judicial departments, but without

changing the number thereof.

b. The appellate divisions of the supreme court are continued, and

shall consist of seven justices of the supreme court in each of the

first and second departments, and five justices in each of the other

departments. In each appellate division, four justices shall constitute

a quorum, and the concurrence of three shall be necessary to a decision.

No more than five justices shall sit in any case.

c. The governor shall designate the presiding justice of each

appellate division, who shall act as such during his or her term of

office and shall be a resident of the department. The other justices of

the appellate divisions shall be designated by the governor, from all

the justices elected to the supreme court, for terms of five years or

the unexpired portions of their respective terms of office, if less than

five years.

d. The justices heretofore designated shall continue to sit in the

appellate divisions until the terms of their respective designations

shall expire. From time to time as the terms of the designations expire,

or vacancies occur, the governor shall make new designations. The

governor may also, on request of any appellate division, make temporary

designations in case of the absence or inability to act of any justice

in such appellate division, for service only during such absence or

inability to act.

e. In case any appellate division shall certify to the governor that

one or more additional justices are needed for the speedy disposition of

the business before it, the governor may designate an additional justice

or additional justices; but when the need for such additional justice or

justices shall no longer exist, the appellate division shall so certify

to the governor, and thereupon service under such designation or

designations shall cease.

f. A majority of the justices designated to sit in any appellate

division shall at all times be residents of the department.

g. Whenever the appellate division in any department shall be unable

to dispose of its business within a reasonable time, a majority of the

presiding justices of the several departments, at a meeting called by

the presiding justice of the department in arrears, may transfer any

pending appeals from such department to any other department for hearing

and determination.

h. A justice of the appellate division of the supreme court in any

department may be temporarily designated by the presiding justice of his

or her department to the appellate division in another judicial

department upon agreement by the presiding justices of the appellate

division of the departments concerned.

i. In the event that the disqualification, absence or inability to act

of justices in any appellate division prevents there being a quorum of

justices qualified to hear an appeal, the justices qualified to hear the

appeal may transfer it to the appellate division in another department

for hearing and determination. In the event that the justices in any

appellate division qualified to hear an appeal are equally divided, said

justices may transfer the appeal to the appellate division in another

department for hearing and determination. Each appellate division shall

have power to appoint and remove its clerk.

j. No justice of the appellate division shall, within the department

to which he or she may be designated to perform the duties of an

appellate justice, exercise any of the powers of a justice of the

supreme court, other than those of a justice out of court, and those

pertaining to the appellate division, except that the justice may decide

causes or proceedings theretofore submitted, or hear and decide motions

submitted by consent of counsel, but any such justice, when not actually

engaged in performing the duties of such appellate justice in the

department to which he or she is designated, may hold any term of the

supreme court and exercise any of the powers of a justice of the supreme

court in any judicial district in any other department of the state.

k. The appellate divisions of the supreme court shall have all the

jurisdiction possessed by them on the effective date of this article and

such additional jurisdiction as may be prescribed by law, provided,

however, that the right to appeal to the appellate divisions from a

judgment or order which does not finally determine an action or special

proceeding may be limited or conditioned by law.