OF CASES ARGUED AND DETERMINED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THAT STATE. BY GEORGE CAINES, COUNSELLOR AT LAW AND ReporteK TO THE STATE. VOL. I. NEW-YORK: PRINTED FOR ISAAC RILEY & CO. NO. 1, CITY-HOTEL. District of 88. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fourteenth day of November, in the twenty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, GEORGE CAINES, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "New-York Term Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Su66 preme Court of that State. By GEORGE CAINES, Counsellor at Law, and 66 Reporter to the State. Vol. I." IN CONFORMITY to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, "by securing the "Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of "such Copies, during the times therein mentioned." November 14, 1804. EDWARD DUNSCOMB, Clerk of the District of New York. PREFACE. IN a jurifprudence where the judgments of the past are to regulate thofe of future times ;where that which has been, is to form the rule of that which is to be,---the utility and importance of tranfmitting, to those who are yet to come, the decifions of our days, to be acknowledged, need only be named. The inconveniences refulting from the want of a connected system of judicial reports, have been experienced and lamented by every member of that profeffion for whofe ufe the following sheets are peculiarly defigned. The determinations of the court have been with difficulty extended beyond the circle of those immediately concerned in the fuits in which they were pronounced; points adjudged have been often forgotten, and instances might be adduced where those folemnly established, have, even by the bench, been treated If this can happen to thofe before whom every subject of debate is neceffarily agitated and determined, what must be the state of the lawyer, whofe fole information arises from as new. his own practice, or the hearfay of others? Formed on books, the doctrines of which have in many respects been wifely overruled, he must have frequently counselled without advice, and acted without a guide. To alleviate thefe embarraffments, and diffeminate that which it concerns all to know, the following Reports have been undertaken. Their continuance will be regular by quarter-annually publishing in each vacation the decifions of the last preceding term. The reporter would ill deferve the favours he has received, did he not in the fullest manner avow their extent. Their Honors on the bench, with a kindness and warmth of encouragement, for which far more is felt than it is poffible to express, have unreservedly given their written opinions, and the whole bar has frankly and generously afforded their cafes and every other communication, that was wished or defired. To thefe aids the clerk of the court has added an unlimited recurrence to the papers and pleadings his office contains. From this enumeration of affistances it will appear, that the reporter's exertions have been reduced to little more than arranging the materials received, and giving, in a fummary manner, the arguments adduced. In ftating these it has been neceffary to condense; to fhorten but not to deviate from the path, counfel have been pleafed to elect. So little has this been done, that in fome instances, it has been thought right to tread in their steps, and the very words have been adhered to, because they have been confidered as mirrors reflecting the cafe, without which it would often be impoffible to behold it in the light represented to the bench. To omit altogether what the advocate has urged, and specify his points alone, has more than once been fuggested; but believing the reafonings of the barrister to form the link which connects the cafe with the decifion, it was thought impoffible, without in fome degree preferving the language of the pleader, to do justice to either. Notwithstanding every endeavour to render this, it must be confeffed that it has not always been accomplished; and the eloquent in the law will often have to regret the inadequacy of their reporter. For this their forgiveness is entreated: the fault is not in the man, but the nature of the thing. Where is the original that in the copy has not lost fire and colour? With this apology the reporter takes his leave of a bar to whom he is in every sense of the word, truly obliged. NEW-YORK, February, 1804. GEORGE CAINES. |