The Text

The existing county courts are continued, and the judges thereof now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. In the county of Kings there shall be five county judges and in the county of Bronx two county judges. The number of county judges in any county may also be increased, from time to time, by the legislature, to such number that the total number of county judges in any one county shall not exceed one for every two hundred thousand, or major fraction thereof, of the population of such county. The additional county judge in the county of Bronx shall be chosen at the general election held in the first odd-numbered year after the adoption of this amendment. The additional county judges whose offices may be created by the legislature shall be chosen at the general election held in the first odd-numbered year after the creation of such office. All county judges, including successors to existing judges, shall be chosen by the electors of the counties for the term of six years from and including the first day of January following their election except that in counties within the city of New York the term shall be fourteen years. County courts in counties outside of the city of New York shall have the powers and jurisdiction now prescribed by law, and also original jurisdiction in actions for the recovery of money only, where all the defendants reside in the county and in which the complaint demands judgment for a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars; but, if, in any action brought in said court, a counterclaim for more than three thousand dollars shall be interposed, the supreme court, on the application of either party made in the judicial district embracing the county, may remove the cause to the supreme court, whereupon such action shall proceed and be heard as if originally brought therein. The legislature may hereafter enlarge or restrict the jurisdiction of the county courts provided, however, that their jurisdiction shall not be so extended as to authorize an action therein for the recovery of money only in which (1) the sum demanded exceeds three thousand dollars, or (2) in which any person not a resident of the county is a defendant, unless such defendant have an office for the transaction of business within the counts and the cause of action arose therein. From and after the first day of January in the second year following the adoption of this article, all the jurisdiction in civil actions or proceedings now vested in the counts courts of the counties of Kings, Bronx, Queens and Richmond shall be withdrawn from such county court and vested in the city court of the city of New York as constituted in and by section fifteen of this article, and said county courts shall thereafter be vested with jurisdiction only in criminal prosecutions or proceedings as now or hereafter provided by law. County judges shall perform such duties as may be required by law, and their compensation, as established by law, shall be payable out of the county treasury. A county judge of any county outside the city of New York may hold county court in any other county when requested by the county judge of such other county; and, in case of the death, absence, or incapacity of a county judge, in a county having no special county judge then able to serve, the governor may designate a county judge of another county to hold the county court during such vacancy, absence, or inability to act.