New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Declarations

Alphabetic by name of plaintiff's attorney, then chronological by date of filing.

Records documenting pleadings of plaintiffs and defendants in common law actions include declarations of plaintiffs, defendants' pleas, replications, rejoinders, surrejoinders, cognovits, demurrers, reports of referees, reports of damages awarded, and writs of inquiry.

This series contains plaintiffs' declarations, which were the initial pleadings in common law actions. (The abbreviated term for the declaration is "narr.," from the Latin "narratio.") The declaration was made out by the plaintiff's attorney after the defendant had been arrested by a writ of capias ad respondendum. (After 1829 the writ of capias was optional in most actions, and proceedings could commence with service of the declaration.) The declaration contains caption (name of the court and the term in which the writ of capias was to be returned); venue (county from which the jury is to come if the cause proceed to trial); commencement (names of the plaintiffs and defendants and of the plaintiff's attorney, manner of defendant's appearance, and brief statement of the cause of action); statement of cause of action stating when, where, and how the plaintiff incurred the credit or sustained the damages alleged. It might be followed by several separate "counts," each stating the plaintiff's title to the thing demanded, whether it be performance of a contract, recovery of real or personal property, or compensation for injury to himself or his property. (The counts each technically could be the ground for a separate action but were grouped together for convenience), and conclusion; (demand for payment of debt or damages). Printed forms were often used for common types of actions (e.g. trespass on the case and assumpsit).

Following the declaration is the oyer, which is a copy of the promissory note or other written obligation sued upon. The notice of rule to plead usually appears on the dorso of the declaration. It informs the defendant that a rule has been entered in the common rule book kept by the clerk of the Supreme Court, ordering him to plead within twenty days of service of the declaration. The sheriff's affidavit of service or non-service of the declaration and notice is appended or attached to the declaration.

Filed with the declarations are other documents relating to subsequent pleadings by defendant and plaintiff and to determination of the amount of damages to be awarded. When a defendant pleaded the general issue, his written plea denied the injury and put in the proper plea (for example, "not guilty," in actions of trespass, case, and trover; "non assumpsit," in actions of assumpsit; "nil debet," in actions of debt). Subsequent pleadings are called the replication (plaintiff's reply to defendant's initial plea), rejoinder (defendant's reply to replication), and surrejoinder). The defendant's plea sometimes contains more details about a dispute than the declaration does. The purpose of pleading was to reach a point where an issue was joined, that is, defined precisely enough so that a jury could determine the facts. The parties then "put themselves on the country," and a copy of all the pleadings was compiled to be sent to a Circuit Judge for trial. This document was called the "Nisi Prius Record" or "Circuit Roll."

The present series also contains many cognovits and demurrers. The cognovit is the defendant's confession to the facts alleged in the plaintiff's declaration. The demurrer is the defendant's formal exception to the sufficiency in law of the plaintiff's declaration. It did not dispute the facts of the case, and if the plaintiff did not move successfully to quash the demurrer, the presiding justice ruled on a point of law.

Other documents commonly found with the declarations are court clerks' reports of damages awarded after a defendant failed to plead and judgment was awarded to the plaintiff on a non-suit; reports of referees appointed to determine the exact amount of damages due in complicated cases of money accounts; and writs of inquiry directing a sheriff to empanel a jury to assess damages due to a plaintiff after being awarded interlocutory judgment upon the defendant's default, demurrer, or confession. (The return attached to the writ of inquiry is called the inquisition.)

J0011Series J0011, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Motions and Declarations, contains declarations filed prior to 1838

J0027Series J0027, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany, Utica, and Geneva) Writs of Inquiry and Inquisitions, contains additional declarations for Albany, Utica, and Geneva

J1165Series J1165, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Common Rule Books, contains rules to plead entered under names of plaintiffs' attorneys.

Container list is available at the repository.

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

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.