N.Y. County Law 921 – Current minute books and indices in office of county clerk of New York county
§ 921. Current minute books and indices in office of county clerk of New York county. 1. The county clerk of New York county must keep books to be known as current minute books. Each half page of space in each book, or one-third page of space in each book if it is deemed more practicable to subdivide each page in thirds, shall be consecutively numbered for each year and shall be devoted to one action or proceeding. On a half page or one-third page so numbered the clerk shall enter the title of the action or proceeding having the same number for that year, with the names of the first plaintiff or party and the first defendant or party and the names of the attorneys in full, and in chronological order a brief description of each paper as it is filed, together with the date of filing thereof, also the verdict, report or decision, if any, rendered in the action as of the date of the rendering thereof, also all orders and judgments in the action. All preliminary, interlocutory and provisional proceedings, and proceedings supplementary to judgment or execution, shall be entered on the same half page or one-third page of the minute book as the action out of which they arise, or to which they relate, except in actions where the entries are so voluminous as to require one or more additional half pages or one-third pages of space, in which case the entries shall be continued under the same number upon other pages of that or a subsequent minute book, reference thereto being entered at the end of the first and all additional half pages or one-third pages.
Terms Used In N.Y. County Law 921
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
- Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
2. There shall be kept an alphabetical index of all the actions or proceedings entered in such current minute books during any year, which index shall consist of two sets of separate volumes, one set to be designated and used for indexing actions wherein the plaintiff or plaintiffs are individuals, including all individual members of a copartnership or of a firm doing business under a firm name or style as stated in the title of the action, and the other set to be designated and used for indexing actions wherein the plaintiff or plaintiffs are corporations, a joint stock company, a copartnership or a firm name or style under which a person or persons are doing business. Each of such sets of index books shall have a separate volume or volumes for each letter of the alphabet, except that the county clerk may, in his discretion, include more than one letter in a volume when convenience will be served, and a suitable marginal page index, and shall have the designation of its set of books, its letter and the year or years of its entries plainly marked on its back and cover. And all such actions or proceedings shall be indexed in such index volumes according to all the names of the plaintiffs of each title, as contained in the first paper filed therein, in the same manner as it is provided in section nine hundred twenty-two of this chapter that judgment debtors shall be docketed in the judgment docket books, and in every case the index number of the action shall be entered opposite the name indexed.
3. Whenever an action is transferred to another court, or the place of trial changed, the clerk to whom the papers in such actions are delivered shall bind them and file them together and shall enter in the current minute book in which he makes entries an entry of the filing thereof, and shall continue to make subsequent entries therein in the same manner as if the papers had originally been filed with him.