1987
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{9619
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE JUSTICE COURT
TOWN OF WAPPINGER
FOR
1987
ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE JUSTICE COURT TOWN OF WAPPINGER
Jurisdiction And Procedures of the Court
Criminal or Quasi-Criminal
The Criminal Part of the Local Municipal Court retains the following
Jurisdiction and must follow those procedures as mandated by the Criminal
Procedure Law, the Judiciary Law, the Penal Law and other related laws such
as Tax Law, Labor Law, Environmental Conservation Law, Local Laws and a host
of other Laws of the State of New York which deal with Petty Violations,
Misdemeanors and Felonies which may be committed under the provisions of
these Laws.
In matters dealing with these laws, the court retains Original
Jurisdiction over violations of all these laws committed within the locus
of the Town of Wappinger and under certain circumstances, within the locus
of the entire county of Dutchess.
In matters concerning Felony Violations, the Local Municipal Court
conducts all preliminary matters such as receiving the Accusatory Instrument,
Issuance of Summons or Warrant; accepting the application for Search and
Seizure Warrants, as well as holding in-camera hearings on these type
warrants; issuance of such warrants, arraignments, bail hearings, plea
bargain hearings, reduction of charge hearings and preliminary hearings.
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Should Felony matters, after all these type hearings being had, be
held for Grand Jury action, they shall then be transferred to the Superior
Court of the county.
In matters concerning Misdemeanor Violations, the Local Criminal
Court, in addition to the procedures enumerated in the Felony violations
paragraph (except for preliminary hearings) above, the court has the
obligation to continue on by holding further types of pre-trial hearings,
and has the obligation of full trial jurisdiction, including jury trials, or
trials to be held before the bench, and including sentencing of the individual
or individuals who are found guilty, and the dismissal of those charges for
those who are found innocent.
In D.W.I. Misdemeanor or Felony cases there are two additional types
of hearings which are particularly peculiar to this type of case. In the
first instance, if there has been a test refusal, the court must immediately
schedule a special type of hearing to be held before a hearings Judge of the
Department of Motor Vehicles in addition to the hearings to be held by the
court.
In the second instance, the court, if it has information that the
individual charged with the instant offense, has been convicted of an alcohol
or drug related offense occuring within the prior 5 years, the court must hold
a special hearing dealing with the immediate suspension or revocation of the
defendants drivers license.
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In Petty Violations, the court has the duty to handle all aspects
of the matter from the receipt of a complaint to the sentencing or dismissal
as enumerated in the prior paragraphs.
In addition to violations of the Penal Law, in the matters of Vehicle
and Traffic Law, Local Law, Tax Law, Labor law, Transpor~ation Law, Public
Health, Environmental Conservation Laws to name just a few of the above
enumerated procedures that must be followed.
In addition to the above types of proceedings, there are certain
Felonies committed by juveniles, which would otherwise be held by Family
Court or Superior Court, which proceedings are within the jurisdiction of
this court up to and including the point of the holding of a preliminary
hearing or the filing of a Superior Court information, or by termination of
an indictment by the Grand Jury.
In certain family offense cases the court must, if the complainant
demands it, hear on a criminal case basis, those types of family offenses as
enumerated in certain sections of the Family Court Law.
In other instances, the Local Court has the duty and obligation to
arraign and hold over for the proper authorities of this state or of other
states, any fugitive from justice from any of the United States.
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In the scheduling and handling of all of the above mentioned types of
hearings, all parties to the proceedings must be duly noticed by the court, and
complete recordings of all procedures and their results must be duly docketed.
In the reporting of the above mentioned procedures, this court is
required by law to file the proper reports with such State and County
Agencies as Police agencies, Department of Motor Vehicles, Division of Criminal
Justice Services, office of Court Administration, District Attorneys Office,
Stop D.W.I. office, Department of Environmental Conservation, State Department
of Taxation and Finance, New York State Transportation Department, and New York
State Department of Audit and Control, to name a few.
For the purposes of this report, we will report all Penal Law
Violations as "Criminal" proceedings, Vehicle and Traffic Law Violations,
including D.W.I. Proceedings, under the "V & T" heading, all Local Law
Violations under "Local Law" heading and all other types of criminal or
quasi-criminal proceedings under the heading of "other".
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Civil Jurisdiction and Procedures
There are several separate and distinct parts of the Civil Jurisdiction
portion of the Local Municipal Court. Those parts are:
1. Regular Civil, with monetary jurisdiction of up to $3,000.00 and
with personal jurisdiction of any matters to be litigated with either
the defendant or plaintiff being a resident of, or an office for doing
business in, the local municipality or any contiguous municipality.
2. Summary Proceedings, which deal with the recovery of real property,
known commonly as "landlord and tenant proceedings". There is no
monetary limitation in these types of proceedings, the money amount
being sought in these matters may be any amount. The personal
jurisdiction 1n these matters is governed by where the property is
located and the property must be located in this municipality.
3. Small Claims proceedings, where the monetary limit is $2,000.00.
Personal jurisdiction in these matters are limited to the defendant
residing 1n or having an office for doing business 1n the local
Municipality.
4. Replevin Proceedings, where the monetary jurisdiction and
personal jurisdiction are the same as in regular civil proceedings as
enumerated in Part 1 in the above mentioned paragraphs.
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5. Conciliatory Proceedings, where a conciliation of disputes may
be sought through the mediation of the court rather than proceeding
forth in formal litigation. Jurisdiction in these matters may go
even as far as conciliation of what could have been brought as a
criminal or civil litigation.
6. The new commercial claims part of the court, which allows for
the filing of and proceeding forth in any case by a corporation,
without an attorney, 1n any matter which would be brought before
the court in either the regular civil part, summary proceedings part,
or replevin part of the court.
7. Orders to Show Cause, where there is a myriad of different
matters which may be brought before the court in any matter which
might have originally been brought before it in any of the above
mentioned parts except the conciliatory proceedings part.
8. Transferred Superior Court and Supreme Court cases. Court
Rules allow, in certain instances, the transfer of Superior Court
and Supreme Court cases to the Local Courts.
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Procedures in all types of civil matters are governed by the
provisions of the Judiciary Law, Uniform Justice Court Act, Civil Practice
Laws and Rules, Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, Real Property Law,
General Obligations Law, Uniform Commercial Code, Rules of the Chief Judge
of the Court of Appeals, Rules of the Administrative Judges of New York State
and the 9th and 10th Districts, Second Department, in addition to several other
New York State Laws, rules and regulations.
In the regular civil part, the court will receive the original complaint,
issue summons, receive Affadavits of Service, schedule and notice the original
appearance, listen to or receive motions and their answers, and decide upon
them, counter claims, cross complaints, or cross claims, schedule and hold
examinations before trial, schedule and hold pre-trial conferences and settlement
conferences, issue subpoenae and subpoenae duces tecum, schedule and notice
and conduct trials before the bench or jury trials, and make final determinations.
After final determinations, the court will issue Judgments and Orders, Transcripts
of Judgment, Information Subpoenae, Collection Orders, Wage Garnishments,
Seizure and sale of personal property execution orders and any other mandates
to satisfy the judgments and orders of the court.
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In the summary proceedings part of the court, the court will
receive complaints and Notices of Petition to Recover Real ~roperty
for non-payment of rent, non-compliance with, or breach of the terms
of a lease or rental agreement, and for money judgments for due rents
and other damages. The court issues the petitions and receives Affadavits
of Service, schedules and notices the appearance of the parties, receives
oral or written motions and their answers, counter claims, cross complaints
or cross claims, hold hearings, such as those mentioned in the preceeding
paragraph and upon final determination, the court will issue warrants of
removal as well as all the other orders and mandates mentioned in the
preceeding paragraph.
In the Small Claims part of the court, court personnel are required
to take an even greater part in the conduct of the proceedings, by being
mandated by the laws and rules to assist the litigants in these matters.
The Small Claims part of the court was designed by the legislature to enable
all members of the community (except corporate plaintiffs) to appear without
attorneys, and the burden of assisting the litigants in the legal processes,
is placed by law squarely on the Judge or clerk of the court, causing the
clerks of the court to possess knowledge similar to that of a para-legal.
In Small Claims, almost all of the procedures followed in the Regular Civil
Part of the court are followed, in a less formal fashion, up to adjudication
of the matter. The post adjudication processes are the same as the Regular
Civil part of the court, but again, the burden of assisting the judgment
Creditor is placed squarely on the Judge or Clerk of the court.
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In the replevin part of the court, the court follows nearly all
of the same procedures as in the regular civil part except that in these
type of proceedings the court will also issue mandates for the recovery of
personal property or chattel.
In the Conciliatory Proceedings part, the court has a broad scope
of powers, and the procedures used in this type of matter, is specifically
enumerated in Section 214.7 of the New York Court Rules and Regulations.
The new commercial claims part of the court which became effective
January 1, 1988 opens a new part to the court, which is felt by many, will
create a new extremely heavier caseload for the court, although this court,
at this writing, have had only some indications that it may cause such. The
procedures 1n these matters are much the same as enumerated in the regular
Civil part of the court.
Order to Show Cause matters are those cases where a proceeding, which
would have otherwise been brought as a Landlord-Tenant matter, but where the
normal type of Landlord-Tenant relationship does not exist, will be brought
before the court. In addition, any matter which would have the probability
of changing, rectifying or modifying the procedure of, judgment and decision
orders of, or modification of such judgments, decisions, orders or mandates
of the court, may be held as Order to Show Cause matters.
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Transfers from Superior court or Supreme court are procedurely
controlled by the provisions of New York Court Rules and Regulations,
Judiciary law and the matters will then be continued under the same procedures
as enumerated in the Regular Civil part as mentioned above.
Appeals - Criminal and Civil
During the procedures held up to and not including final adjudication
of a matter either the prosecution or defendant, ~n a criminal case or the
plaintiff or respondent in a civil matter, have the ability to appeal any
procedural or pre-final adjudication determination made by the court.
Once we have reached final adjudication of a case, the defendant has a
right to appeal. It is the courts duty to accept the motion of appeal, order
the stenographic record if any, and if not any, to hold a settling of the record
hearing if the appeal has been taken where there are no stenographic minutes
taken of the trial, which is usually the case. The usual method that a case
has been heard before this court is without a stenographic record being taken,
causing the appeal process to be lengthy at times.
Once the record has been settled, then all parts of the record are
then forwarded to the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court 9th and lath Judicial
Districts.
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Annual Report
During the calendar year of 1987, the Town of Wappinger Justice
Court presided over 15,244 hearings of all kinds, dealing with the mandated
Jurisdiction and procedure of all parts of the court.
As a result of the matters that came before the court during the
year, the court disposed of 4,229 cases in their entirety, and at the end of
the year there were still pending a total of 1,627 cases.
Of the matters that were disposed of in their entirety:
2,805 were Motor Vehicle matters showing the court collecting $122,070.00
in fines and fees, in addition to other sentencing, including jail terms, probation,
conditional discharges, unconditional discharges, adjournments in contemplation of
dismissal, community service sentences and other alternatives to incarceration
sentences;
477 were criminal cases, showing the court collecting $11,785.00 1n
fines and fees as well as other sentencing as stated above;
309 were local law violations showing the court collecting $4,045 1n
fines and fees as well as some of the other sentences enumerated above;
33 were "other" matters showing the court collecting $3,332.50 1n fines
and fees as well as some of the other sentences enumerated above;
605 were civil matters showing the court collecting $3,813.80 in civil
fees. As a result of the civil cases held in the court, adjudications and
settlements of the matters before it totaled money judjments of $1,580,503.65,
in addition to 72 warrants of eviction being issued, as well as a number of
wage garnishments and personal property executions.
During the course of the year a total of $145,046.30 was collected by
this court and made payable to the State Department of Audit and Control pursuant
to the requirements of the law, and at the end of the year, an amount of
$12,770.00 representing cash bail were left remaining in the two official bank
accounts of this court.
At the close of the year, of the 1,627 cases still pending before the
court:
249 are Criminal matters
132 are Drunk Driving matters
324 are other Motor Vehicle matters of non-scofflawed drivers
870 are Motor Vehicle matters of scofflawed drivers
52 are Civil matters
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For purposes of the special stop D.W.I. Funding portion of the court,
this court handled 418 Driving While Intoxicated matters during the year. 186
which were disposed of and 132 which are still pending.
To complete the above mentioned workload in a proper fashion, this court
received over 9,000 pieces of incoming mail and individually prepared and sent
out over 15,000 pieces of out-going mail.
9,361 Mandated reports were individually prepared and submitted to the
appropriate State, County of Local authority, as well as a number of cumulative
reports such as monthly reports to the State Department of Audit and Control and
the TSLED authority.
As a result of the activity of the Town Justice Court, the town was
reimbursed $47,236.30 by the state and $2,800.00 by the county, bringing total
reimbursements to the town of $50,036.30. The total expended by the town for
operation of the court was $64,766.56, leaving a balance of $14,730.26 which
was paid through local taxes by Town of Wappinger taxpayers.
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Comments and Recommendations
The foregoing workload was completed by the personnel of this court
which consists of only one full-time and several part-time employees. The
structure of the court during 1987 was: The two judges are considered to
be part-time, and at the beginning of 1987, the court had one full-time Chief
Clerk and one full-time assistant clerk in addition to two part-time clerks.
During the course of the year, the assistant clerk resigned and was replaced by
another. Within several weeks the replacement clerk resigned and was replaced
by two part-time clerks. During the past several years, the two full-time
clerks worked between 100 to 150 hours overtime per annum without additional
compensation and at least one of the Judges has put full time hours in for the
last 2 years. Not only are the Judges expected to sit during their normal
bench time, but are required by law to oversee all the clerking work, do their
own law research and write their own decisions, be up at all hours of the night
and on weekends for immediate arraignments (the two Judges of this court were
in this court 218 times during the year at those times) keep all their own
notes during all hearings, assist in the training of any new personnel, and be
responsible for all required reports.
The Chief Clerk to the court, must first train, and then along with
assistants, prepare all required reports, notice all parties to all hearings,
receive, categorize and disseminate all incoming mail, notices, filings of
proceedings and their follow ups, calendar all hearings, as well as the
recording and docketing of all proceedings. The Chief Clerk must also respond to
all inquiries dealing with calendaring, noticing disposition and docketing of
all the procedures of the court in each matter before the court.
Two years ago, the then existing town board was told by one of its
members that a "Blue-Ribbon Panel" of community members would be appointed to
make an in-depth study of the workload of the court and to determine what its
needs would be in the areas of personnel, salaries and budget. This court
welcomed the concept and waited to be contacted by said panel to give it what
information records, and documentation it would need to make such a study. We
are still waiting. No such panel was ever appointed.
In fact, this court, over the last ten plus years has been attempting to
have a proper conduit for the dissemination of information with the administrative
body of the town, without success.
If one were to look at the budget history of the town court, in this day
and age of increasing workloads of all departments in the town, it would be
immediately apparent that a department with a $55,000 budget in 1983 couldn't
possibly operate on a budget of $45,000 in 1986, but this is exactly what happened
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~n the town of Wappinger Justice courts budget.
One of the best indicatmrs of workload increases of the court is the
use of the reimbursement formula of the State Department of Audit and Control,
where the monies coming from the state to the town in 1983 was $2L.563.80_and
in 1986 was $34,497.60 which would indicate a workload increase of over 50%,
while operating with a budget of approximately 20% less.
The town of Wappinger Justice Court is the 2nd busiest of all the Local
Justice Courts in the County and one of the busiest courts in the Mid-Hudson
Valley, and of the over 1,000 local justice courts in the State, the Town of
Wappinger Justice Court handles one of the busiest Civil calendars of all.
Even though the present town board has attempted to cure some of the
ills created by their predecessorst there are still some serious problems to be
broached by the town board in fulfilling the Justice Courts budgetary and
operating needs.
We would very seriously recommend to the town board the appointment of a
"Blue Ribbon panel" to approach the continuing existing problems with the
personnel, salary and budgetary needs of the court, as well as making any
recommendations to the Justice Court and to town board as well.
ResP7fUllY subm" te
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~incent S. Francese
Administrative Judge
Town of Wappinger Justice
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Court