The Text

The existing county courts, except in the counties of Kings, Queens, Bronx and Richmond, are continued, and the judges thereof now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. The number of county judges in any county may 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 judges whose offices may be created by the legislature shall be chosen at the next general election held in an odd-numbered year after the creation of such office. All county 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. County courts 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 judgments for a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars and interest; but, if, in any action brought in said court, a counterclaim for more than three thousand dollars and interest 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, t h a t 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 and interest, or (2) in which any person not a resident of the county is a defendant, unless such defendant has an office for the transaction of business within the county and the cause of action arose therein. County judges shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law, and their compensation, as established by law, shall be payable out of the county treasury. A county judge or special county judge may hold the county court in any other county when requested by the county judge of such other county upon the consent of the presiding justice of the appellate division of the judicial department within which the judge so requested resides, 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 appellate division of the department may designate a county judge of another county to hold the county court during such vacancy, absence, or inability to act. Any county judge may be assigned temporarily to hold any term or session of the supreme court, or of a surrogate’s court outside of the city of New York, by the appellate division of the supreme court in the judicial department to which the assignment is made, but no assignment of a county judge for service without his own judicial department shall be made unless the presiding juistice of the appellate division of his own judicial department consents thereto. Such county judge while so assigned shall have the powers and duties of a justice of the supreme court if assigned to the supreme court, and of a surrogate if assigned to a surrogate’s court.