New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Registers of Returns of Writs

Chronological by filing date, then alphabetical by first letter of last name of attorney who moved the court to issue the writ.

Registers of returns of writs of capias ad respondendum, habeas corpus, and execution provide filing date, names of plaintiff and defendant, and remarks on the type of writ and its return by the sheriff.

These registers contain entries of writs issued by the court and returned by sheriffs. The returns are for writs of capias ad respondendum, by which defendants were arrested and held for appearance in court; writs of habeas corpus, by which defendants, witnesses, or other persons were arrested for the same purpose; and the various writs of execution issued subsequent to a final judgment. Each entry in these volumes gives the date of filing the returned writ; names of the plaintiff and defendant; and remarks on the type of writ and whether or how it was returned by the sheriff. For the writ of capias ad respondendum (caps.) the return is either "defendant taken" or "not found". For the writ of habeas corpus, the return is the same.

The returns to writs of execution are as follows. The returned writ of fieri facias (fi. fa.) usually states that nulla bona, or "no goods", were found on which a judgment could be levied, but occasionally that a specified amount was collected, or that the total judgment was satisfied. The writ of capias ad satisfaciendum (ca. sa.) may be returned with the notation that the judgment was satisfied; otherwise the judgment debtor was either "taken", i.e, arrested, or "not found". The writ of scire facias, an order to a defendant or his heirs to show cause why an action should not proceed or a judgment not be levied, was returned by the sheriff stating that notice had been given. (The writs of capias for Albany have not survived, and these registers provide the only record of their issuance and return.)

J0024Series J0024, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Writs of Arrest and Execution, is partly indexed by this series.

The Court of Appeals placed these records on deposit at the Historic Documents Collection, Queens College, from 1973-1982.

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