There is no institution such as ours that arrives on the scene fully formed and ready to dispense law. So, it is appropriate that we recognize the prior generations of judges and staff, and the many outstanding lawyers who have helped shape the court to what it is today which is truly a temple of the law.
Our court was established by legislation as an intermediate appellate court in 1896 and, on Jan. 2, 1900, our first judges took up residence of the beautiful courthouse overlooking Madison Square Park. The Appellate Division was created to streamline appeals and to facilitate the development of precedential legal principles which would then guide the many lower courts of the day. Every kind of issue that could lead to disputes in this city at that time passed through our court, and because of how jurisdiction was devised, most cases ended in the Appellate Division. Thus, from its inception, the Appellate Division was the epicenter of New York legal jurisprudence and the guardian of this great city it was intended to serve—a city of unparalleled wealth but also unimaginable and too often unrelenting poverty.
