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"History of the Third Department" |
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Justices Elected or Appointed to the
Court of Appeals In addition to Judges Landon, Foster, Bergan, and Gibson, seven other Justices who have served on the Appellate Division, Third Department, have been elected or appointed to the Court of Appeals. Judge Emory A. Chase, born August 31, 1854 in Greene County, was elected a Supreme Court Justice for the Third Judicial District in November 1896 (re-elected in 1910). He served on the Appellate Division, Third Department, for a five year term, January 8, 1901, to 1906. He was appointed to the Court of Appeals, effective January 9, 1906, by the Governor, under a certificate of need from the Court of Appeals (as authorized by 1899 Constitutional amendment). While serving as an additional temporary judge, he also served as a member of the Court for the Trial of Impeachments after the Assembly impeached Gov. Sulzer on several charges of misconduct in August 1913. The lead counsel for the Governor was former Appellate Division Justice D. Cady Herrick. He was elected to the Court of Appeals in November 1920 and continued his service there until his death on June 25, 1921. Judge Henry T. Kellogg was born in 1869. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1892. In 1893, he entered into a law partnership in Plattsburgh with Charles E. Johnson. He was elected county judge of Clinton County in 1902. The next year he was appointed by the Governor to succeed his father, S. Alonzo Kellogg (then serving on the Appellate Division, Third Department), to the Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial District. Justice S. Alonzo Kellogg had retired because of ill health. He was elected to the Supreme Court seat in 1903 and was re-elected in 1917). Judge Kellogg was designated to the Appellate Division, Third Department, in January 1918, and continued there until his election to the Court of Appeals in 1926, the year that Judge Cardozo became Chief Judge. Judge Kellogg was acting Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division from September 1922 to May 1923, in place of Presiding Justice Van Kirk. He resigned from the Court of Appeals in the spring of 1934 because of ill health. He died at his home in Valcour, near Plattsburgh, at the age of 73 in September 1942. Judge Domenick L. Gabrielli was born in Rochester on December 13, 1912, the only son of parents who had immigrated from Italy that same year. He graduated from Albany Law School in 1936 and was admitted to the Bar in 1937. In 1957, he was elected Steuben County Judge and Childrens' Court Judge. On July 13, 1961, by gubernatorial appointment, he was designated a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Seventh Judicial District; he was elected to a full term in November 1961. In January 1967, Gov. Rockefeller designated him to the Appellate Division, Third Department; two years later, the Governor designated him to the Fourth Department (his home department). He was elected to the Court of Appeals in November 1972. He retired at the end of 1982 because he had reached the mandatory retirement age. He joined the Rochester based law firm of Nixon Hargrave Devans & Doyle and transferred to its Albany office in 1987. He founded the Gabrielli Moot Court Statewide Competition sponsored by Albany Law School. Judge Gabrielli died March 25, 1994. Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke was born in Monticello in Sullivan County on October 15, 1914. After graduating from Albany Law School, he was admitted to the Bar in 1939. He was elected in 1955 as County Judge and Surrogate of Sullivan County and re-elected in 1959. In 1961, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District. He was designated to the Appellate Division, Third Department, in 1968 by Gov. Rockefeller and served there until his election to the Court of Appeals in 1974. He was appointed the 20th Chief Judge by Gov. Carey on January 2, 1979. He retired from the Court of Appeals at the end of 1984 at the age of 70. Judge Richard D. Simons was born in Niagara Falls on March 23, 1927. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1952. He was admitted to the Bar in 1952. He was elected to the Supreme Court, Fifth Judicial District, in November 1963 and re-elected in 1977. He served on the Appellate Division, Third Department, from 1971 to 1972 and on the Fourth Department from 1973 to 1983. Gov. Cuomo appointed him to the Court of Appeals on January 3, 1983. He served as acting Chief Judge from November 1992 to March 1993. Judge Howard A. Levine was born in Troy on March 4, 1932. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1956, the same year he was admitted to the New York State Bar. He was elected in 1970 to Schenectady County Family Court, a position he held until 1980. That year, he was elected a Supreme Court Justice for the Fourth Judicial District. Effective at the beginning of 1982, he was designated to the Appellate Division, Third Department. On August 13, 1993, Gov. Cuomo appointed him to the Court of Appeals, where he served until the end of 2002. He was the 200th jurist to sit on the Court of Appeals since it was founded in 1846. Judge Victoria A. Graffeo was appointed to the Third Department on March 31, 1998. She was elected to the Supreme Court for a term commencing January 1997, having been appointed to fill a vacancy on that court in September 1996. She served as Solicitor General for the State in the Office of the Attorney-General from 1995 to 1996. Justice Graffeo spent 10 years of her legal career in the State Legislature, acting as Chief Counsel to the Assembly Minority leader from 1989 to 1994 and Counsel to the Assembly Minority leader Pro Tempore from 1984 to 1988. She began her career in public service as Assistant Counsel to the State Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse in 1982. Earlier, she was in private practice with a law firm in Colonie. A resident of Guilderland in Albany County, Justice Graffeo graduated from the State University College at Oneonta in 1974 and Albany Law School in 1977. She was nominated to the Court of Appeals by Governor Pataki in November 2000 and sworn in as a member of that Court in January 2001. |
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Page 15
 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York |