Case Name: The People agt. John Petrea
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1882-11
Citations: 64 How. Pr. 139
Docket Number: 
Parties: The People agt. John Petrea.
Judges: 
Reporter: Howard's Practice Reports
Volume: 64
Pages: 139–196

Head Matter:
SUPREME COURT.
The People agt. John Petrea.
Constitutional law— Criminal law and practice— Construction of the amendments to the constitution adopted in 1874, with reference to local legislation —Practice as to drawing grand and petit jurors— Code of Civil Procedure, sections 1027, 1038, 1041, 1043, 1048, 1047— Chapter 532, Laws of 1881, amending section 1041 of the Code of Civil Procedure, in so far as it provided for the selection of grand jurors, in and for the city and county of Albany held to be constitutional — Code of Criminal Procedure, sections 223, 238, 239, 258, 268, 273, 285, 312, 313, 321, 322, 332, 333, 338, 339 359, 362, 368, 364,365, 366, 375, 377, 455,485, 517,562—Practice under these sections as to grandjurors — Indictments — Plea of prisoner — Appeals — Objection to panel of jurors, &c.
The defendant was indicted in September, 1881, for grand larceny, committed in the preceding month. When arraigned he interposed objections to the finding of the indictment in various forms, all however, centering in this, that the grand jury which found the indictment, was drawn from the names of persons selected by the recorder (a local judicial officer) of the city of Albany, and by the supervisors of the several towns (the recorder taking the place of the seventeen supervisors of the city), and from the petit jury list numbering some 2,500 persons, instead of from a list of three hundred persons selected exclusively by the supervisors of the city and county, as required by the Revised Statutes (3 R. S. [7th ed.], 2558, sec. 1), and which proceeding in that regard was taken under and pursuant to section 1041 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881, whereas, as was insisted, such amendment was unconstitutional in so far as it provided for the selection of grand jurors in and for the city and county of Albany, as it was a local act within article 3, section 18, of the constitution, which prohibits local laws for for selecting, drawing, summoning or impannellng grand or petit jurors. The objections were overruled. A plea of not guilty was entered. On the trial, objection was taken to the petit jury on the same grounds which were also overruled. Conviction and sentence followed.
Held, that the conviction should be affirmed (Learned and Boches, JJ., concurring; Westbrook, J., dissenting).
The Code of Civil Procedure which governs the case provides no way by which such a question can be raised (Per Learned and Bockes, JJ.).
A motion to quash, or to set aside an indictment should be made upon affidavits, and the Code prescribes no method of reviewing a decision thereon (Learned, P. J.).
There is no constitutional provision which allows a party always to appeal to the highest court, even when his grievance is that a constitutional right has been infringed (Learned, P. J.).
The legislature may refuse to give any right of challenge for any fault or error in the preparation of the jury list, provided only that the clerk properly drew the trial jury from the box of ballots prepared by him (Learned, P. J.).
There being no way of ascertaining whether chapter 582, of the Laws of 1881, was reported by Code commissioners, except by evidence aliunde the chapter in question of the acts of the legislature, said chapter cannot be held to be an infraction of the fundamental law, as the constitutionality of laws cannot be permitted to depend on possibly varying decisions of courts and juries on mere questions of fact as to which the legislature had special knowledge (Learned, P. J.).
The objections to the indictment were in the nature of a challenge to the array. They went to the entire panel. The mode of presenting the questions is however immaterial (Bockes, J.).
The Revised Statutes limited challenges to grand jurors to an objection against the prosecutor or complainant serving on the jury, on the theory that the substantial rights of the prisoner would be protected on the trial before the petit jury (Bocres, J.).
Irregularities in the selection or drawing of grand jurors, not affecting the substantial rights of the accused as regards the question of his guilt or innocence, is not a good ground of challenge to the array (Bockes, J.).
The recorder, although acting under an unconstitutional law in selecting the list from which the grand and petit jurors were drawn, was, as to the act of selection, a de facto officer, and his selection cannot be questioned collaterally; and this rule is not changed because there was no dispute as to the title to bis office, the objection being to the exercise of additional duties created by a law fundamentally bad. His action had the sanction of an apparent law duly certified to him and to the people of the state (Bockes, J.).
The paper presented by the defendant was not a plea '• to an indictment,” and as such controlled by section 332 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Neither was it a challenge to the array of grand jurors, nor to an individual grand juror, and therefore controlled either as to form or substance. The objection he made was radical; it was aimed at the jurisdiction of the court to place him on trial, and denied that he was indicted, as no grand jury had presented the accusation upon which he was arraigned (Westbrook, J.).
The Code of Criminal Procedure cannot be construed as intending to deprive a person of a constitutional right, and if it be capable of any such construction, which it clearly is not, such a barrier would be futile, for it is a legal impossibility by a statute to deprive a party of his right to claim constitutional protection. Under color of legislative enactment, a grand jury cannot be organized in a mode forbidden by the constitution, and prevent, under like color of legislation, the aggrieved party from being heard in assertion of his rights (West-brook, J.).
By section 18 of article 3 of the Constitution, it is declared, "The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases, * * * selecting, drawing', summoning or impanneling grand or petit jurors,” and by section 35 of same article, it is provided "that sections 17 and 18 of this article shall not apply to any bill or the amendment to any bill which shall be reported to the legislature by commissioners who have been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes.” These provisions are clear. Chapter 533, of 1881, is not an amendment to a bill, but is an amendment of a law in full force at the time of the passage of the former, and not having been reported by commissioners, is void (Westbrook, J.).
It is elementary that a body of men, no matter of whom composed, has, either of its own volition or upon the summoning and call of other than the authority of law, no power to resolve itself into a grand jury, and when professing to be thus organized, to accuse any one, by what it may call an indictment, of an infamous crime and subject him to a trial therefor (Westbrook, J.).
It is clearly the prerogative of the court to ascertain and decide whether, in the passage of any bill, a constitutional provision was violated (Westbrook, J.).
The authorities have settled these principles : First. That mere irregularities by an officer in doing that which he is authorized to do will not vitiate the thing done. Second. When duties properly and legally belonging to the office of which an individual is in possession have been performed by such incumbent, that which has been thus done will be upheld as to the parlies affected thereby, and courts will not, in collateral proceedings, inquire into the right of the individual to hold the office and to discharge the duties which lawfully appertain to such office (Westbrook, J.),
But no such principles are involved in this case. The recorder assumed to do an act not properly appertaining to his office, as the constitution forbade conferring - upon him such power by a local law (West-brook, J.).
Friery agt. People (2 Keyes, 424); Carpenter agt People (64 N. Y., 483); Dolan agt. People (Id., 485); Cox agt. People (80 id., 500) examined and explained (Westbrook, J.).
The ruling of the court below involved one of the most sacred rights of a man — his right to be tried for a crime only after indictment by a grand jury organized according to law. When this prerequisite to a trial and conviction was not obtained, and a human being is in prison, without this safeguard of his rights having been observed, the court should rather stretch than curtail its power to review (Westbrook, J.).
Third Department, General Term, November, 1882.
Appeal from a judgment of conviction for grand larceny, rendered in the court of sessions of Albany county. At the September (1881) term of said court of sessions, an indictment was found against the defendant for grand larceny, alleged to have been committed in the city of Cohoes, August 2, 1881. At the March (1882) term of said court of sessions, the defendant was brought into court, when he presented the following:
And the said John Petrea comes in his own proper person, •and having heard the said indictment read, says that the state ought not further prosecute the said indictment against him the said John Petrea, because he says that (names of jurors), all of the grand jurors by whom the said indictment was found and returned into the said court at the said March term thereof, were not, all of them, the above named grand jurors, nor any one of them, at the time they so acted, and at the time the said indictment was found and returned, duly and legally selected and qualified to act as such grand jurors, in this,-they, the said grand jurors, nor any one of them, had not then and there been drawn from a list of the names of three hundred persons prepared by the supervisors of the county of Albany, as is required by and provided for in and by the Revised Statutes of this state, or from any list of the names of any other or different number of persons what ever, prepared by the said supervisors of said county of Albany to serve as grand jurors, but that, on the contrary thereof, the said grand jurors herein before particularly named, and each and every one of them, who found and returned the said indictment, were drawn by the officers named by law from the box containing the names of petit jurors selected for said county of Albany, under and pursuant to the provisions of chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881, entitled “An act to amend section one thousand and forty-one of the Code of Civil Procedure,” under the pretense and claim that said chapter 532 was a valid and constitutional enactment and law, and that it superseded and repealed, the provisions of the Revised Statutes regulating the subject; whereas it is averred and insisted by the defendant that the provisions of the said chapter 532, in so far as they relate to the city of Albany and the county of Albany, are obnoxious to and in contravention of the requirements of the constitution of the state of New York, which forbids the passage by the legislature of a private or local bill for selecting, drawing, summoning or impanneling grand jurors, and that the said chapter 532 was not reported to the legislature by any commissioner or commissioners who had been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes; by reason of the premises the said defendant has been deprived of the benefit and advantage of the superior care and discrimination required and theretofore used in selecting grand jurors, owing to the limited number of persons permitted by the wisdom of the legislature to be selected, and from which persons shall have been drawn to act as grand jurors in the consideration of his case; and that the result of said unconstitutional law compels the selection of grand jurors, and the grand jurors who found said indictment were selected from an ill-assorted, indifferently collected list of names, many being incompetent, exceeding in number 2,500, and being the petit jurors’ list, and none of said grand jurors so drawn and hereinbefore specifically named were the same, but were wholly and entirely different persons from the persons who should have been drawn pursuant to the provisions of the Bevised Statutes aforesaid, whereby he has been deprived of his constitutional rights in the premises.
And this the said J ohn Petrea is ready to verify. Wherefore he prays judgment, and that by the court here he may be dismissed and discharged from the said premises in the said indictment above specified.
JOHbT PETBEA, Defendant.
U. P. HIHMAN, and
E. J. HEEGAH, of Counsel.
Thereupon the district-attorney objected, upon the ground that the proceeding was unknown to the criminal law and criminal procedure as it now stood.
By the Couet. — For the purpose of raising this question, I will override the objection and permit the plea to be filed.
It was conceded that the grand jury returning said indictment was selected and drawn pursuant to chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881.
The people filed a replication to defendant’s plea, as follows:
And hereupon, D. Cady Herrick, district-attorney of Albany county, who prosecutes for the said state in this behalf, says: That by reason of anything in the said plea of the said John Petrea above pleaded, the said state ought not to be precluded from prosecuting the said indictment against the said John Petrea, because he says it is admitted that the said grand jury was selected and drawn pursuant to chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881, as in said plea stated; and as to the other allegations, matters and things in said plea stated, he denies the same, each and all; and this he, the said district-attorney, prays may be inquired of by the country. And this the said district-attorney is ready to verify; wherefore he prays judgment, and that the said John Petrea may be convicted of the premises in the said indictment above specified.
D. CADT HEBBICK,
District-Attorney.
The following rejoinder was filed:
And the said J ohn Petrea, as to the said replication of the said district-attorney to the said plea by him, the said John Petrea, pleaded, says that the said state, by reason of anything by the said district-attorney in that replication alleged, ought not further to prosecute the said indictment against him, the said John Petrea, because he saith that all matters of facts in said plea stated are true, and constitute in law good and sufficient reasons for sustaining the same; and the said John Petrea joins issue upon the allegations of denial in said replication stated; and of this he, the said John Petrea, puts himself upon the country.
JOHN PETREA.
N. P. HINMAN,
E. J. MEEGAN,
Of Counsel.
The defendant’s counsel asked the court to hold as matter of law that the constitution, having prohibited the legislature from passing a local bill for the purpose of selecting or drawing grand jurors with certain exceptions, the onus was upon the people to show that said chapter 532 came within the exception, which was refused and an exception taken.
The defendant then offered to prove by the clerk of the senate, by the commissioners appointed to revise the statutes, by the journal of the legislature of 1881, and by the original act itself, that the law in question was not reported to the legislature by any commissioner or commissioners who are or had been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes, which offer was objected to, and the objection sustained, and the defendant excepted.
The defendant offered to prove that said chapter 532 was introduced in the legislature by a member thereof who was not, and never had been, a commissioner to revise the statutes or any statute.
The plea was thereupon, on motion of the people, overruled and an exception taken.
The same questions were raised on motions to set aside and to quash the indictment.
The defendant pleaded not guilty. Upon the trial of the indictment the same questions were raised as to the panel of petit jurors and to each juror, which were overruled. The defendant was convicted. A motion for new trial was made and denied. The defendant was also convicted of escape from jail, in which case the same questions were raised. The (defendant appealed.
Nathan P. Hinman and Edward J. Meegan, for appellant.
I. The grand jury which found and presented the indictment herein, :and the petit jury which tried the case were organized under and by virtue of chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881. The claim made by the defendant, as his plea and objections show, is that the act in question', so far as it affects the city and county of Albany, is in conflict with the constitution, as amended November 3, 1874. Article 3 of section 18 of the constitution provides: “ The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases: * * vr Selecting, drawing, summoning or impanneling grand or petit jurors. ” This provision is qualified by section 25 of the same article, which provides: “Sections 17 and 18 of this .article shall not apply to any bill, or the amendments to any bill, which shall be reported to the legislature by commissioners who have been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes.” 1. Reference to the statutes will show that there have been no such offices or officers as “ commissioners who have been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes ” subsequent to May 1, 1878, and, therefore, said chapter 532 oould not have been reported as provided for in said section 25. The statutes relating to the subject are as follows : Chap. 33, Laws of 1870 ; chap. 467, Laws of 1873 ; also Id., p. 1007; chap. 212, Laws of 1874; chap. 520, Laws of 1875; Laws of 1877, p. 141. Laws of 1876 (1 S. L., pp. 176, 177) contained this provision: "The term of office of the said commissioners is hereby extended to the first day of May, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight.” 2. Prior to the passage of chapter 532, Laws of 1881, aforesaid, the Code of Civil Procedure nowhere made provision for the drawing, summoning or impanneling of grand jurors for Albany county; ;the Revised Statutes provided the method as follows: “Section 1. The .■supervisors of the several counties of" this state, except the city and (County of New York, at their annual meetings in each year, shall prepare ia¡list of the names of three hundred persons to serve as grand jurors at the courts of oyer and terminer and courts of sessions to be bold in their respective counties during the then ensuing year, and until new lists shall be returned ” (3 R. S. [6th ed.], 1015 ; 3 R. S. [7th ed.], 2558). (The foregoing section is taken from article first, entitled “Of the return and summoning of grand juries, their powers and duties.”) 3. Said chapter 532 is as follows:
Chapter 532.
An Act to amend section one thousand and forty-one of the Code of Civil Procedure.
“ Section 1. Section one thousand and forty-one of the Code of Civil Procedure is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
Sec. 1Q41. Each ward of the city of Utica is considered a town for the purpose of this article; and the supervisor and assessor of that ward must execute the duties of the supervisor; town clerk and assessors of a town, as prescribed in the foregoing sections of this article, except that a duplicate of the list of jurors made by them must be filed in the office of the clerk of the city. In the city of Albany the recorder of said city shall perform the duties imposed by this title upon the supervisor, town clerk and assessors of towns. In Albany county, grand jurors shall hereafter be drawn from the box containing the names of petit jurors selected for said county in the same manner as petit jurors, and thereafter no separate list of grand jurors shall be prepared for said county. In each of the other cities of the state the like duties must be performed by the officers, and in the manner prescribed by law. A city, wherein two or more assessors are elected for the entire city, is considered a town for the purposes of this article, except where the officers who are to perform the duties of the supervisor, town clerk or assessor, as prescribed in this article, are specially designated by law.”
4. The following gives the section as it was prior to the foregoing amendment:
Rule in Cities.
“ Sec. 1041. Each ward of the city of Albany or Utica is considered a town for the purposes of this article; and the supervisor and assessor of that ward must execute the duties of the supervisor, town clerk and assessors of a town, as prescribed in the foregoing sections of this article; except that a duplicate of the list of jurors made by them must be filed in the office of the clerk of the city. In each of the other cities of the state, the like duties must be performed by the officers and in the manner prescribed by law. A city wherein two or more assessors are elected for the entire city, is considered a town for the purposes of this article, except where the officers who are to perform the duties of the supervisor, town clerk or assessor, as prescribed in this article, are specially designated by law,”
(Article second, from which the foregoing is taken, relates to trial jurors alone.) The ten hundred and forty-first section, read in connection with the ten hundred and thirty-fifth section, gives the method of selecting petit jurors, anterior to alleged amendment of section 1041. “Section 1035. The supervisor, town clerk, and assessors of each town, must meet on the first Monday of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and in each third year thereafter, at a place within the town, appointed by the supervisor ; or in case of his absence or of a vacancy in his office, by the town clerk, for the purpose of making a list of persons to serve as trial jurors for the then ensuing three years. If they fail to meet on the day specified in this section, they must meet as soon thereafter as practicable." 5. The sweeping change proposed to be made may be thus seen at a glance ; it attempts completely to revolutionize the existing system. It provides that the grand jurors in Albany county shall be drawn from the petit jurors' box, and the names of proposed petit jurors, so far as Albany city is concerned, are to be selected, not as theretofore by the seventeen supervisors, but by the recorder of the city of Albany. And this change is purely local, being limited to the city of Albany.
II. The amendments to the third article of the constitution, ratified in 1874, were the product of the constitutional commission appointed by Gov. Hoffman in 1872. The state had just emerged from a period of special and pernicious local legislation, and our people demanded restrictive measures. It was in obedience to the popular opposition to the vice of local laws solemnly enacted for every square mile of territory in the state, as special emergencies arose, that the article in question was formed. The committee of the commission who formulated said article, consisted of Messrs. E. Brooks, F. Kernan, H. V. Howland and C. L. Tracy. (As reported by them it did not contain the twenty-fifth section.) The reasons of the commission for its adoption, as stated by the committee, are to be found in journal of constitutional commission of 1872 and 1873, page 304. The journal of the commission also shows that the twenty-fifth section was. afterwards added by the revision committee. (Page 455.) At that time' Code commissioners were at work, resulting in the adoption, in 1876;-, of the first thirteen chapters of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the remaining nine chapters in 1880, and afterwards the Code of Criminal Procedure. The amendments aforementioned, recommended by the constitutional commission, were adopted by the legislature of 1873 (Session Laws, p. 1401) and of 1874 (Session Laws, p. 927), and ratified by the people in November, 1874. The value of the full report of the com mittee above given, stating their reasons at length why the article in question was proposed for adoption as .part of the organic law of the state, is understood when the opinions of eminent jurists in expounding constitutional law are studied. Walworth, Ch., says: “One mode of construing this section is, to take the constitution as we find? it,, without reference to the manner in Which its different parts were proposed and adopted; and another is, to look at the proceedings of the convention and endeavor thereby to discover the probable intention of the framers of the constitution as we now find it ” (Clark agt. The People, 26 Wend., 602). Bronson, J., referring to the debates of a constitutional convention, said: “We have here the most unequivocal proof — evidence which no man can fail to see, wink as hard as he will — that the framers of the constitution meaiit precisely what they said” (The People agt. Purdy, 2 Hill, 37; Cooley's Const. Lim. [4th ed.], 80). Although the rule contended for by the defendants may occasion inconvenience, it will make no difference. “ It is highly probable that inconveniences will result from following the constitution as it is written. But that consideration can have no weight with me. It is not for us, but for those who made the instrument, to supply its defects” (Bronson, J., Oakley agt. Aspinwall, 3 N. Y., 568; Story on Const., sec. 407; The People agt. Morrell, 21 Wend., 563).
III. It is submitted that, so far as Albany is concerned, chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881 is a local bill, and therefore falls within the constitutional inhibition, as it attempts specially to provide for the selecting and drawing of grand and petit jurors for this particular locality (The People agt. Hoffman, 60 How. Pr., 324; affirmed, 24 Hun, 142; Wenzler agt. People, 58 N. Y., 525; Kerrigan agt. Force, 68 N. Y., 383; Sedg. on St. and Const. Law [Pomeroy’s Ed.], 529 n). (1.) If the title of chapter 432 run thus: “An act in relation to grand and petit jurors in the city and county of Albany,” would a claim be made that it was not a local act within the intent and prohibition of the constitution? Does it alter the effect by mixing these local regulations in an amendment to a general act? Clearly not. It is a plain case of attempted evasion of the constitution, which the courts will not tolerate. The court of appeals formulates the rule as follows: “A thing, within the intent of a constitutional enactment, is, for all purposes, to be regarded as within the words and terms of the constitution, and a legislative enactment, evading the terms and frustrating the general and clearly-expressed or necessarily-implied purposes of the constitution is as clearly void as if in express terms forbidden” (The People agt. Albertson, 55 N. Y., 50; Matter of N. Y. Elevated R. R. Co., 70 N. Y., 349; Taylor agt. Com'rs, 23 Ohio [N. S.], 22; Belleville R. R. Co. agt. Gregory, 15 Ill., 20; People agt. Allen, 42 N. Y., 404; State agt. Herman, 15 Cent. L. J. [Mo.], 129; see 14 Reporter, 339). Because the act is in the form of an amendment to a general act. or Code, the constitutional objection is not thereby obviated. “ It is contended that the Traylor act is but an amendment to the Political Code; that the Political Code contains a general law upon the subject to which the Traylor acts relates and that by this sort of tacking the latter act is converted into a general law. We cannot appreciate the logic or force of the argument. The question is, had the legislature the constitutional power to pass the act under consideration? * * * If it is a special or local law, then it comes directly within the inhibition of the constitution and never had any validity, for the legislature had no power to enact it. We do not understand how any law can be amended by a void act ” (Earl agt. San Francisco B’d of Ed., 55 Cal., 492). If it is competent to regulate good jurors in Albany county in this way, what is there to prevent sixty-four other local laws, one for evciy other county in the state, dissimilar to each other, and producing by the variety of enactments, the same ignorance of this important subject as now prevails in reference to the law in general of our sister states. Grand jurors being county officers, to require a general law on the subject, necessarily implies one covering the state at large. In no other manner could the provision have effect.
IV. No commissioners “who have been appointed pursuant to law to ■ revise the statutes,” having reported to the legislature said chapter 583, it does not fall within the exception made by the fundamental law. 1. The •language of the exception is plain. To hold that the legislature may amend at will a Code reported by commissioners, would compel a trans.position of sentences of the section in question, and instead of, as it now reads, “ shall not apply to any bill or the amendment to any bill which shall be reported,” &c., it would run, “ shall not apply to any bill which shall be reported, &c., or the amendments to any such bill.” Such a construction would he a practical nullification of the restrictions in the constitution and open the door to special legislation, without limit and on any subject. 3. The district attorney, in the court below, conceding that section 104L “was a local act,” inquired, with apparent amazement, “is the amendment to that local act unconstitutional ? Must all amendments to any local act or law contained in the Code he reported by commissioners appointed to revise the statutes? ” We answer, in the language of the constitution, that "the legislature shall not pass a private or local bill for selecting grand or petit jurors, except or unless such bill shall have been reported by the commissioners,” &c. Thus saith the fundamental law. Does it mean what it says? The prohibition is general. The legislature shall not pass a (any) private or local hill on that subject. A bill is strictly a draft of an act of the legislature before it becomes a law; a proposed or projected law (1 Burrill’s Law Dictionary, 204). The word is frequently used in this sense in the constitution (See secs. 13, 14, 15 and 16 of art. 3, and sec. 9 of art. 4). It is expressly provided that “ no law shall be enacted except by bill” (Secs. 14, art. 3). There are other instances, however, where the word is used as a synonym for act or law (See sec. 12, art. 7). And it is manifestly used in both of those senses in section 35 of article 3, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter. In section 18, however, of the same article, the words "bill” and, "law” are each used in their strict grammatical sense—the word “ bill ” in speaking of proposed laws, and the word “law” in referring to bills passed or adopted, or to be adopted by the legislature. “ The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases (specifying them), but the legislature shall pass general laws providing for these cases,” &c. (Sec. 18). The prohibition, then, contained in section 18 is absolute and universal. It extends to any and all cases of proposed laws, private or local, for any of the purposes specified. All legislation, either to create a new law or to amend an old one, is interdicted, except by bill; and then follows the provision that no private or local “ bill ” shall be passed for selecting jurors, which is tantamount to saying that there shall be no legislation on that subject of a private or local character. The prohibition, therefore, necessarily includes proposed amendments to old laws as well as projected new laws. This result ought not to surprise the district attorney, because this precise answer has been given to the same question in analogous cases by the highest judicial authority. Section 16 of the same article of the constitution provides that “ no private or local bill * * * shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.” And it has been repeatedly held that this prohibition extends to amendments of private or local laws (People agt. Hills, 35 N. Y., 449; People agt. O'Brien, 38 N. Y., 193). The act in question then, as an amendment of a local law, clearly falls within the constitutional prohibition, unless it is saved by the exception created by section 25. But that section merely excepts from the general prohibition “any bill, or the amendments to any bill, which shall be reported to the legislature by commissioners who have been appointed to revise the statutes.” It is an undisputable fact that this act was not so reported, and hence does not come within the terms of this saving clause. Nor is it possible to construe the language of this exception so as to reach any other conclusion. Nothing is saved, if private or local, no matter what it may be called, a bill, an act, a law or an amendment to a bill, act or law, unless reported to the legislature by the commissioners. But as some stress may be laid upon the use of the words “ amendment to any bill,” in the exception, it may be well to pause a moment on this aspect of the question. It has been suggested that the insertion of these words in section 25, and their omission in section. 18, justifies the inference that the prohibition in the latter section was not intended to include amendments to-local laws. It is a sufficient answer to this criticism that section 25 was not limited in its operation as an exception to the prohibition contained in section 18. It was also intended to qualify the provisions of section 17 on another subject, and the language of -the exception was therefore adapted to the provisions of both of the previous sections to which it is equally applied. But if this were otherwise, and section 25 were designed merely to limit the effect of section 18, it would not sustain the conclusion thus sought to be deduced. An exception cannot well be more comprehensive in meaning than the rule it is designed to qualify, and hence the insertion of this clause in the exception proves that it was deemed necessary in order to limit the operation or effect of the previous prohibition. Besides, the sovereign people who adopted these new constitutional provisions will be presumed to have been familiar with the prior provisions contained in section 16, and with the judicial construction which had been given to the phrase “private or local bill ” in that section, as already stated. And it will also be presumed that the same words were afterwards used to convey the same ' meaning in section 18. Nor would it follow from this view that the legislature must adopt, verbatim, the bill or amendment as reported by the commissioners. A reasonable construction must be given to the language used to give effect, not to defeat, the intention of the framers of the constitution. The evident policy and object of the provision was,; .that private or local bills, including amendments to local laws, should originate with and be reported by a legal commissioner, and that such bills in all their essential features, should be ratified or rejected by the legislature. But while accepting the bill thus proposed in its general scope and purpose, the legislature would doubtless have the power to change the phraseology or to rearrange the details of the measure according to its own views of policy and propriety. Indeed, the only limit to the exercise of the legislative discretion, in this respect, would be that the bill thus modified in the course of its passage, must not be shorn of its distinguishing characteristics as originally reported by the commission. This view is strengthened by the provisions of section 17 of article 1 of the constitution, as originally adopted in 1846, and the practical construction! given this language by the legislature and the courts down to the present time. “ The legislature, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, shall appoint three commissioners whose duty it shall be to reduce, into a written and systematic Code, the whole body of the law of this State, or so much and such parts thereof, as to the said commissioners shall seem practicable and expedient. And the said commissioners shall specify such alterations and amendments therein, as they shall deem proper, and they shall at all times make reports of their proceedings to the legislature,” etc. (Art 1, sec. 17). Under those provisions the commissisners reported to the legislature, from time to time, political, civil and criminal codes of the whole body of the law, as well as of civil and criminal practice in the courts, none of which were ever adopted by the legislature, except the old Code of Procedure, which was subjected to many alterations and amendments in the course of its passage. Nor is it true that this peremptory prohibition, properly enforced, would render all existing local laws on the subject specified “fixed, unalterable, irrepealable.” The design, doubtless, was to prevent further local legislation on these subjects, and to Compel the adoption of general laws for the governance of cases not provided for by the local laws then in force. Whenever an existing local law needed amendment to make it effectual, the new policy of "the constitution, as expressed in section 18, article 3, requires not the passage of a new local bill or amendment, but the repeal of the old law and the enactment of a general law providing for the emergency. But even if all the practical results suggested by the district attorney in the court below were the necessary outcome of this construction of the constitution, they could not properly affect or change the necessary conclusion. The language of the prohibitory clause is clear definite and peremptory. In such a case it is the imperative duty of the legislature to obey the constitutional mandate, and if the legislature fails in this respect, the courts must not hesitate to recognize and enforce the paramount law (People agt. Albertson, 55 N. Y., 50). Finally, if the legislature is hampered by these restrictions, the district attorney, in an argument on this subject, made before the Albany oyer and terminer, entertained (and no doubt still has) distressing fears of the failure of parliamentary government. But he should remember that this, after all, is a republican, not a parliamentary government. The legislature with us, is not omnipotent, but subject to all the limitations imposed by the constitution. In the language of the commission which proposed these provisions as they are now incorporated in the fundamental law, “the experience of the legislature and the judgment of the people have for many years demonstrated the necessity of less local legislation, and the wisdetn, whenever it is possible, of requiring general laws to take the place of special acts,” and no better evidence can be given of the wisdom and justice of the construction of these provisions for which we contend, than the complaints of the district attorney concerning the practical results which must be anticipated. As these results are in harmony with the policy which led to the adoption of these provisions, they afford the most conclusive reason why they should be strictly and rigorously enforced. 3. The ten hundred and forty-first section of the Code, attempted to be amended by chapter 532 aforesaid, contained no reference to grand jurors prior thereto. It related to trial jurors only. If new matter so entirely incongruous to the original text can be thus injected, why will not the Code of Civil Procedure be the happy medium through which every scheme, venture, enterprise, speculation and obnoxious measure, forbidden by the constitution, be carried to a successful and triumphant legislative success and conclusion. Let us examine, for a moment, the extraordinary things in store for the people of the state, unless the defendant’s theory is sustained. First. The Code might be amended so as to change the names of persons. Second. Or with reference to roads, or draining swamps, in particular localities. Third. Or locating or changing a county seat. Fourth. Or to incorporate a village. Fifth. Or to regulate the method of finding and drawing indictments, and the course of criminal procedure, including change of venue, in the city and county of Albany. Or any of the other acts .forbidden by the section in question, and everyone of these would be just as germane to the Code as the attempt to incorporate a part of the criminal procedure relating to grand jurors in the Code of Civil Procedure. A contrary construction will carry joy to the hearts of the legislative jobbers, who thereby will be able to ply their vocations in the above enumerated cases, and which we have good evidence were intended to be forbidden by the constitution. Why should there be different rules for each separate county; are we not a homogeneous people ? Does Albany require different methods from those that answer the wants of the adjoining counties of Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady or Schoharie ? If the sensational comments of the district-attorney in the court below have any foundation, the county of Albany should be governed by some sultan or potentate appointed by some friendly and not so wicked a power as prevails in Albany county. Experience teaches that the elements which can elect every one of seventeen supervisors of the city, may readily capture a nomination and elect a recorder, and then, according to the district attorney, as expressed in the court below, the end comes. 4. The courts will not construe the constitution so as to thwart its evident intent and purpose (9 Wheat., 81); or suffer it to be eluded (People agt Utica Ins. Co., 15 Johns., 358). The phraseology of the section proves that the intention of the constitution was to close the doors; it devitalized and rendered nugatory the enacting prohibitory clauses only as the result and effect of the report of commissioners who had been appointed, thereby expressly rejecting the idea of future commissioners, presumptively from an assured confidence in the integrity and ability of the commissioners then serving. “ In interpreting clauses we must presume the words have been employed in their natural and ordinary meaning. Says Marshall, Ch. J. ; 1 The framers of the constitution, and the people who adopted it, must be understood to have employed words in their natural sense, and to have understood what they meant ’ ” (Cooley's Const. Lim. [4th ed.], 72). “ The objection of construction, as applied to a written constitution, is to give effect to the intent of the people in adopting it. In the case of all written laws, it is the intent of the law giver chat is to be enforced ” (Cooley’s Const. Lim., 68). It was competent for the Code commissioners to report a bill or an amendment thereto, and in fact they have frequently done so. The word "which” must be understood to relate to that which precedes it, and to cover both propositions, the bill and the amendments to any bill. The office of a proviso, generally, is either to except something from the enacting clause, to restrain its generality or to exclude some possible ground of misinterpretation of it, as extending to cases not intended to. be brought within its purview (Minnis agt. U. S., 15 Peters, 423 ; Wyman agt. Southard, 10 Wheat., 1, 30). A proviso in a statute is to be strictly construed ; it takes no case out of the enacting clause which is not fairly within the terms of the proviso (U. S. agt. Dickson, 15 Peters., 141 ; Potter’s Dwarris Stat., 118, n. 11). 5. The rules of interpretation and construction are the same with reference to written agreements, statutes or constitutions. These rules afford a safe guide in ascertaining the constitutional intent as to the section under discussion. Remembering the language of the section, it is submitted that Coxson agt. Doland (2 Daly, 66), decides the controverted proposition. It holds that “the grammatical rule, which is also the legal rule in construing statutes, is, that when general words occur at the end of a sentence they refer to and qualify the whole, while if they are in the middle of a sen fence, and sensibly apply to a particular branch of it, they are not to be extended to that which follows.” Judge Miller, in Lambert agt. The People (76 N. Y., 225 et seq.), discusses the question as to the effect to general words at the end of an affidavit, and approves of the rule laid down in Coxson agt. Doland (see, also, Van Noy agt. Failing, 7 N. Y. Weekly Digest, 485 ; The King agt. Inhabitants of Shifton, 8 Barn. & Cress., 94), where the principle is applied. In section 25, the general words are at the end of the sentence, and within these authorities must be held as relating to all that precedes it, and consequently the general words “ which shall be reported,” &c., include “ any bill, or the amendments to any bill.”
V. Independent of the statute terminating the term of office of the commissioners to revise the statutes, the fact is that chapter 583 in question was introduced without the agency or knowledge of anyone who ever had been appointed a commissioner to revise the statutes. Some rules of evidence on the subject are material. 1. The burden rests upon those who sustain this law to prove it to be constitutional. It must be shown that the constitutional prerequisites were complied with (People agt. Commissioners, 54 N. Y., 276). 2. It is competent to use the journals of either house to impeach a law apparently invalid. They may be resorted to in ascertaining whether an act was passed by a two-thirds vote (Purdy agt. The People, 4 Hill, 384, per Paige and Franklin, Senators; De Bor agt. The People, 1 Denio, 14). The People agt. Devlin (33 N. Y., 269), holds that it is not competent to show, after a bill has been passed by both houses and sent to the governor, that one of the houses passed a resolution recalling the bill; but Potter, J., says (p. 270): “ Whenever any act or proceeding of such a body becomes necessary to be shown as evidence, such journals may be received (Berry agt. Baltimore Railroad Company, 41 Md., 446). “ Each house keeps a journal of its proceedings, which is a public record, and of which the courts are at liberty to take judicial notice. If it should appear from these journals that any act did not receive the requisite majority, or that in respect to it the legislature did not follow the requirements of the constitution, or that in any other respect the act was not constitutionally adopted, the courts may act upon this evidence, and adjudge the statute void ” (Cooley’s Const. Lim. [4th ed.], 164, citing numerous cases; see, also, Brady agt. West, 50 Miss., 68; Bradley agt. West, 60 Mo., 33; The Elevated Railroad Cases, 3 Abb. N. C., 372; Town of Ottawa agt. Perkins, 94 U. S., 260; see 13 Federal Rep., 238, 728).
VI. The organization of the grand jury which found this indictment cannot be upheld upon the theory that the act of the recorder in selecting the jurors from which the jury was drawn, was that of a defacto officer. The legal principle that the acts of a defacto officer cannot be questioned collaterally, has no application to the case. 1. The recorder was a defacto and a de jure officer. No one questioned his right to occupy that office, and there was and is no contest as to his title. In all the cases that the principle contended for by the people has been invoiced there existed a dispute as to which one of two or more claimants was the de jure officer. Here an effort is made to transfer by statute a part of the duties of existing officials, county officers, the supervisors, to another existing official, a city officer, the recorder. We object to this transfer of official duties, not to Mr. G-ould’s title to the office of recorder. Our contention, therefore, is, that the recorder is assuming to act, in selecting grand jurors, under a law which, being unconstitutional, affords no cover or protection for such acts, and they are simply void. Like the case of Kelly agt. Bemis (4 Gray, 83), a justice of the peace issued a warrant for the arrest of a person under a law afterwards held to be unconstitutional. An action for false imprisonment against the justice was sustained, the court saying: “Under a government of limited and defined powers, where, by the provisions of the organic law, the rights and duties of the several departments of the government are carefully distributed and restricted, if any one of them exceeds the limits of its constitutional power, it acts wholly without authority itself, and can confer no authority upon others. The defendant could derive no power or jurisdiction from a void statute ” (Barker agt. Stetson, 7 Gray, 54; Gross agt. Rice, 71 Me., 241). These and other authorities make apparent the distinction broad and "clear between the claim for an office and a claim to discharge additional functions created by an unconstitutional law (Thompson & Merriam on Juries, sec. 138; Robinson’s Elem. Law, sec. 359). It is submitted that the law is settled in our state, that where one acts as an officer under a commission issued without authority, or under an unconstitutional law, no one is bound and no one is protected under it (People agt. Blake, 49 Barb., 9; People agt. Albertson, 8 How. Pr., 363; People agt. Carter, 29 Barb., 208; Williams agt. Garrett, 12 How. Pr., 456; Hamlim agt. Dingman, 5 Laws., 64; See People agt. Kelsey, 34 Cal., 475). 2. Judge Cooley sayá: “ When a statute is adjudged to be unconstitutional, it is as if it had never been. Rights cannot be built up under it; contracts which depend upon it for their consideration are void; it constitutes a protection to no one who has acted under it, and no one can be punished for having refused obedience to it before the decision was made. And what is true of an act void in toto, is true also as to any part of an act which is found to be unconstitutional, and which, consequently, is to be regarded as having never at any time been possessed of any legal force ” (Cooley’s Const. Lim., 227). 3. Carpenter agt. The People (64 N. Y., 483) does not apply to the case at bar. There the prisoner claimed that one Douglas Taylor was the rightful commissioner of jurors of New York county, but that one Thomas Dunlap, claiming to act as such commissioner under an appointment from the mayor, actually selected the jury. Dunlap was, therefore, claiming title to an office, and his title thereto was disputed. The court says “ he was, therefore, a de facto officer. ” But no one disputes the right of recorder Gould to his office. His title thereto is perfect. He assumes, however, as in the case of Kelly agt. Bemis (4 Gray, 83), to act under a law which is invalid, and to such unlawful action we object. In other words, the question is not whether he had a right to act as recorder, but whether any recorder had a right to so act.
VII. Plainly the act of the recorder in designating the names of the persons from whom grand and petit jurors are to be drawn is a selection within the constitutional provision. 1. Chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881, the one in question, declares the act of the recorder to be a selection, for the word “selected” is used. The grand jury are to be drawn-from the box containing the names of petit jurors selected for the county. And who selects for the city of Albany? The recorder. 2. The constitution follows the order prescribed in and by the Revised Statutes and. the logical arrangement of the text-books: First, "selecting;” second, “drawing;” third, “summoning;” fourth, “impanneling” (Article 3, section 18). The first step is provided for in the Revised Statutes in this wise: “Inpreparing such lists” (of grand jurors) “the said board of supervisors shall select such persons only as they know, or have good reason to believe, are possessed of the qualifications by law required of persons to serve as jurors for the trial of issues of fact, and are of approved integrity, fair character, sound judgment and well informed (3 R. S. [7th ed.], 2558, sec. 3). Section 10 (Id.) provides for the drawing by the county clerk in presence, etc. Section 12 (Id.) provides for summoning, etc. Chapters 4 and 5 of Proffatt on Jury Trials (secs. 114, 145) arranges the methods in the same manner as the constitution —“ selected,” “ drawing,” “summoning,” “impanneling.” He says: “ But according to the system in some of the states, as, for instance, in the state of New York, they” (the grand jurors; " are selected from the body of the county by the board of supervisors, and separate ballots containing their names are placed in a box kept by the clerk of the county, from which the requisite number are drawn by lot to form the jury” (Sec. 47). These words of the consti tution, prior to the adoption, thereof, as will he thus seen, had a definite and fixed meaning in law, and the courts will give the same meaning and effect to the words of a constitution as they were understood prior thereto (Cooley on Const. Lim. [4th ed.], 64). The recorder is required to perform the duties of supervisor, town clerk and assessors. AVhat. were their duties? The Code of Civil Procedure, defining them (sec. 1036), provides: "At the meetings specified in the last section, the officers present must select from the last assessment-roll of the towns, and make a list of the names of all persons whom they believe to be qualified to serve as trial jurors, as prescribed in the last article.” The subsequent sections provide for the drawing, summoning, &c., the jurors.
VIII. Our claim is that the grand jury should have been selected under • and pursuant to the Revised Statutes, the Code provision being void; the Revised Statutes were not repealed (The People agt. Tiphaine, 3 Park. Cr. R., 241; State agt. Clear, 11 Nev., 39; State agt. Johnson, 11 Nev)., 148). 1. “ Compliance with the forms and mode pointed out by statute for summoning a grand jury is necessary; any omission or violation of the mode will be sufficient to justify tile quashing of the indictment ” (Proffatt on Jury Trial, sec. 46; McQuillen agt. State, 8 Smed. & M., 587, 597; Stokes agt. State, 24 Miss., 621; Wash, on Cr. L., 121; Com. Dig., indict. A.; Moore C. L., sec. 774; Iowa agt. Brandt, 9 Weekly Jurist; State agt. Light, body, 38 Maine, 200; Reich agt. State, 1 Hawley’s Am. Crim. Rep.; see 26 Alb. Law Journal, 516).
IX. The defendant has the right to raise the question of invalidity of the law, and he has taken every step essential to be entitled to a hearing thereon. 1. He filed a plea in abatement and moved to quash, and also set aside the indictments. Objection was duly taken to the petit jury. 2. The ancient statute, 11 Henry IV, chapter 9 (and which; so far as applicable, became part of our common law, 1 Kent Corn., 473), secured the right to object to an indictment in these words: “That from henceforth no indictment be made by any such persons but by inquest of the king’s lawful liege people, in the manner as was used in the time of his noble progenitors, returned by the sheriffs or bailiffs of franchises, without any denomination to the sheriffs or bailiffs of franchises before made by any person of the names which by him should be impanneled, except it be by the officers of said sheriffs or bailiffs of franchises, sworn and known to make the same, and other officers to whom it pertaineth to make the same, according to the law of England. And if any indictment be made hereafter in any point to the contrary, that the same indictment be also void, revoked, and forever holden for none” (2 Hale P. C., 355 ; 16 Am. Law Review, 219). The statute prescribed no formula, and the courts have recognized various ways of reaching and remedying any objections to the grand inquest. 3. The ordinary method of objecting to a grand jury is by plea in abatement (1 Bish. Crim. Pro., sec. 748; State agt. Green wood, 5 Porter, 474; State agt. Leaben, 4 Dev., 305; State agt. Freeman, 6 Blackf, 248; Barney agt. State, 12 Smed. & Marsh., 68; see subd. 8, this point). 4. And a motion to quash the indictment (1 Bish. Crim. Pro., sec. 747). 5. The court may receive the suggestions from an amicus cwim (People agt. Jewett, 3 Wend., 314; 16 Am. Law Rev., 221; Bonlo agt. State, 51 Ala., 19; McEthannon agt. People, 92 Ill., 369, 372). 6. Although challenges to the array of grand jurors are abolished, the court may grant relief to a defendant on special motion (United States agt. Reed, 2 Blatch., 436; United States agt. Tallman, 10 Blatch., 29; People agt. Southwell, 46 Cal., 153) It is inherent in courts to control the proceedings taken therein, and the common law established by the statute of Henry vests in our superior courts the power to do justice to defendants without reference to forms. To illustrate, take the ease provided for by section 370 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is declared therein that the dismissal of a charge by one grand jury does not prevent its being again submitted to another grand jury as often as the court may direct. But without such direction it cannot be again submitted. Suppose that, without such direction, a resubmission was made and an indictment found and presented, would there be no remedy for the defendant ? The Code, in express terms, provides none; but to prfevent the consummation of such an outrage and the defiance of the express mandate of the Code, the inherent right of the court to protect its own dignity and to control its proceedings, would be sufficient authority to right the wrong so done (Baldwin agt. New York, 42 Barb., 549; McGuire agt. The People, 2 Park. C. R., 162; see 13 Northwestern Rep., 477). The offense charged in the indictment is alleged to have been committed on the 3d day of August, 1881; this being anterior to the Code of Criminal Procedure going into effect, we are not in any way embarrassed by its provisions, as they apply only to cases occurring after September 1, 1881, when said Code went into effect (Code of Crim. Pro., secs. 962, 953; The People agt. Sessions, 10 Abb. N. C., 192). Independently of this statutory reservation, the legislature could not deprive the defendant of any substantial right he had at the time of the commission of an alleged offenise (Cooley’s Const. Lim. [4th ed.] 331). The rules therefore governing pleas in abatement prior to the Code, prevail in this case. Mr. Bishop says, adopting the definition of Starkie: “Pleas in abatement are founded either on some defect apparent on the face of the record, or upon some matter of fact extrinsic of the record, which render it insufficient” (1 Bish. Crim. Pro., sec. 416). The proper time to interpose a plea in abatement is before plea of not guilty (McQuillan agt. State, 8 Smedes & Marsh., 587; People agt. Allen, 43 N. Y., 28; Ward agt. State, 48 Ind., 289). An objection to the mode of selecting persons from whom grand jurors are to be drawn, can be taken advantage of by the defendant by a plea in abatement after indictment found (Clare agt. State, 30 Md., 163; Stokes agt. State, 24 Miss, 621; State agt. Dutell, 49 Greene, 125; Portis agt. State, 23 Miss., 578; Elkins agt. State, 1 Tex. App., 539; Schackleford agt. State, 2 Tex. App., 385; State agt. Vance, 31 La. Ann., 398). The incompetency of the grand jurors who find a bill is a matter which may be pleaded in abatement (Nugent agt. State, 19 Ala, 540; State agt. Foster, 9 Texas, 65; Jackson agt. State, 11 Texas, 261; Rawls agt. State, 8 Sm. & Marsh, 599; State agt. Rickey, 5 Halst., 83; State agt. Greenwood, 5 Porter, 474, 483; Shropshire agt. State, 7 Eng., 190; Baker agt. State, 23 Miss., 243; State agt. Brooks, 9 Ala., 10; State agt. Wills, 11 Humph, 222). “ Since the statute has abolished challenges to the array (2 R. S., 724, secs. 26, 27), it may be conceded that a plea in abatement can be interposed to an indictment setting forth that the finding of the indictment was by an illegal body” (Fancher, J., Stokes agt. People N. Y. Sup. Ct., reported 1 Whart. Cr. Law, sec. 472, n. c). Where the petit jury have not been drawn in the mode prescribed by law, the trial, conviction and sentence are null and the prisoner stands as though he had riot been tried (State agt. Da Rocha, 20 La. An., 356; U. S. agt. Woodruff, 4 McLean, 105). 11. If the legislature pass an act-in contravention of the constitution, it would be illogical and revolutionary to sustain any other dodtrine, but that it cannot pass another act either contemporaneously or subsequently providing that one affected by the unconstitutional law cannot take advantage of it. Every one has a vested right to claim the benefit of constitutional provisions, and he must have some way of asserting his right. “ There is no doubt * * * that a statute which should deprive a party of all legal remedy would necessarily be void ” (Potter's Dwarris Stat., 474). “The legislature may abolish courts and create new ones, and it may prescribe altogether different modes of procedure in its discretion, though it cannot lawfully, we think, in so doing, dispense with any of those substantial protections with which the existing law surrounds the person accused of crime ” (Cooley’s Const. Law [4th ed.], 331; Flint River Steamboat Co. agt. Foster, 5 Geo., 194). If, therefore, it be claimed that the proper construction of the Code of Criminal Procedure will prevent a defendant from interposing any objection to a grand jury on fundamental points, it runs clearly in conflict with the constitution. That instrument (art. 1, sec. .2) declares that trial by jury in all cases in which it has been heretofore used, shall remain inviolate forever; also (art. 1, sec. 6) provides that no person shall be held to answer for a capital .or otherwise infamous crime (except in certain cases named), unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury. In criminal cases jury trials are jealously guarded. Constitutional provisions cannot be waived, for it is deemed in such cases that there are more than personal interests involved, that the rights and interests of the public are concerned (Proffatt on Jury Trial, sec. 113). It would be incompetent for the legislature to abolish .the trial by jury, or to enact that a defendant could not in any way at any time object to an illegal jury; or in the case of an indictment so to arrange it that an unlawful body of men could assemble and assume to act as a grand jury, perpetrating outrages by presenting unfounded indictments and then say to the persecuted parties you cannot object to this body. A body of men not constituted as the law provides is not a grand jury, and those accused of crime have the right before being placed on trial for a criminal accusation to have the benefit of presentment or indictment by a legal grand jury, as the constitution could not have intended to mean an illegally organized grand jury. “ The right must not be restricted by ■conditions which would practically impair or render it unavailing. While it is decided to be reasonable in civil cases to require a bond for the prosecution of an appeal to a jury, or to pay costs or to prepay the jurors fees in the first instance when a jury is demanded, the same restrictions are not permitted in criminal cases. Hence a statute requiring a court upon appeal in a criminal case to impose a penalty in case of conviction in double the amount imposed by the court below, is, in that respect, unconstitutional ” (Proffatt on Jury Trial, sec. 103; State agt. Gurney, 37 Me., 156; Lord agt. State, Id., 177; McClear agt. State, 11 Neb., 45).
X. The chapter in question is a plain and clear violation of the constitution. The duty of courts in such case is well expressed by judge Smith in Clark agt. City of Rochester (24 Barb., 466): “It is the exclusive province of the legislature to enact the laws and to pass upon all questions relating to their expediency, the time, manner and mode of their operation. It pertains to the judiciary to interpret the laws thus enacted, and to carry the same into effect. Acting in common with the legislature, under the constitution, which both are sworn alike to support, it is our duty to bring all laws, when called upon in due form to enforce them, to the touchstone of the constitution, and to pronounce against the validity of all acts clearly in conflict with the fundamental law.”
XI. The judgment of conviction should be reversed, and as the indictment is fatally defective, the defendant should be discharged (Sauser agt. The People, 8 Hun, 302-305).
D. Cady Herrick, district-attorney, for the people.
I. The conviction should not be reversed for refusal to quash indictment. The general rule being that an indictment charging the higher crimes will not be thus summarily disposed of (People agt. Walters, 5 Parker, 661).
II. The paper filed containing the objection to the grand jury did not constitute a plea to the indictment (Cox agt. People, 80 N. Y., 500, 510). As to challenges to grand jurors, see 3 Revised Statutes (6th ed.), 1018, sections 27, 28; People agt. Harriott (3 Parker, 112).
III. The manner in which the jurors were selected is something to which the defendant can take no exception, as he has no interest in it. (Friery agt. People, 2 Keyes, 425; 2 Abb. Ct. of App., 229).
IV. It is sufficient to maintain the authority of the grand jury to investigate criminal charges and find indictments valid in their nature that the body acted under color of lawful authority. Irregularities do not affect it (People agt. Dolan, 6 Hun, 232; 6 Id., 493; 64 N. Y., 485; Thompson agt. People, 6 Hun, 135; People agt. Jewett, 3 Wend., 314; Ferris agt. People, 31 Howard, 145).
V. The Code of Criminal Procedure expressly prohibits challenge to the array (Sec. 238). The Code was intended to simplify the law and reduce it to a complete and harmonious whole (Hickman agt. Pinkney, 81 N. Y., 211, 215; People agt. Brooklyn, 69 N. Y., 605).
VI. The challenge to the petit jury was properly overruled (Wharton’s Pl. & Pr., sec. 607; Proffatt on Jury Trial, sec. 149; Pringle agt. Huse, 1 Cow., 436, n.; Gardner agt. Turner, 9 Johns., 261).
VII. The only law enacted by a legislature that cannot be amended or repealed is one that embodies a contract (5 McLean, 161; 28 Ind., 364; 23 Ind., 150; 14 Wis., 623).
VIII. Hitherto the argument has proceeded upon the assumption that the act in question was not reported by commissioners to revise the statutes. Is it clear to the court that the act must have been so reported to make it constitutional? If the court is in any doubt it must uphold the law. Nothing but a clear violation of the constitution will justify the ■court in overriding the legislative will (C. C. R. Co. agt. Twenty-third St. R. R. Co., 54 How., 180; Matter of N. Y. El. R. R., 2 Abb. N. C., 413). .Every presumption is in favor of the validity of legislative enactments. 'They are presumed to be passed in accordance with the constitution (70 N. Y., 356), and every intendment and presumption is in favor of the rconstitutionality of legislative enactments (9 Hun, 190; 54 How., 180; 17 N. Y. 549; 3 Abb. N. C., 413; 70 N. Y., 342). We know that in 1877, 11880 and 1881, Codes reported by commissioners to revise the statutes ’Were enacted into laws. The laws of 1847 (p. 66) provides the first commissioners, and for filling vacancies. The presumption then is, that if the law required them to report the amendment in question before the 'legislature could lawfully enact it into a law, that they did so report it, - or the legislature would not have passed it.
IX. Proof cannot be given to show that the act or amendment in questtion was not reported by commissioners (33 N. Y., 279, 283; 70 N. Y., 351).

Opinion:
Learned, P. J.
The prisoner was indicted September 19, 1881. When arraigned he filed a plea setting forth certain talleged defects in the forming of the grand jury which .indicted him. The district attorney filed a replication and the (prisoner a rejoinder. The prisoner offered to prove certain ¿facts set up in his plea. The court excluded the evidence, and, on the motion of the district attorney, overruled the rest of the plea. Thereupon the defendant demanded a trial and pleaded not guilty.
Ho such plea as that offered by the defendant is now allowed (Code Crim. Pro., secs. 273, 332). And a plea must be oral (Sec. 333). It was proper, therefore, to require the prisoner to plead one of the three pleas authorized by section 332.
The prisoner, upon pleading not guilty, moved to set aside the indictment on the ground that the grand jury was unlawfully selected and drawn, and for the reasons stated in his plea, and offered to prove certain facts by legislative journals and by oral testimony. The offer was overruled.
He also moved to quash the indictment on the said grounds. This was overruled.
The Code of Criminal Procedure seems to have substituted a motion to set aside an indictment for the former motion to quash (Sec. 313). It must be set aside, when it is not found indorsed and presented as prescribed in sections 268 and 272. The only ground which the prisoner makes is that none of the persons who, as grand jurors, found the indictment were grand jurors. >
A motion to quash an indictment, and so a motion to set it aside, should be made upon affidavits. Ho affidavit appears in this case. We know of no practice by which the prisoner on such a motion offers to prove certain facts and endeavors to take exceptions to the exclusion of such offer. The proceeding is not a trial, but a mere motion, which must be based on affidavits. There are none here.
Again, so far as we can discover, the Code of Criminal Procedure has not provided for any review of the order granted on such a motion. Section 517 says that, on appeal, any intermediate order, forming a part of the judgment-roll as prescribed in section 485, may be reviewed. On turning to section 485 it will be found that the judgment-roll is not required to contain the proceedings on a motion to set aside the indictment. So that we find no authority for the review of an order setting aside or refusing to set aside an indictment. If it be suggested that the proceedings on that motion should appear in the bill of exceptions, and hence in the judgment-roll, the contrary is shown by section 455.
Furthermore, we find no order whatever refusing to set aside the indictment.
The legislature may well have thought that, as an indictment is only an accusation, it was sufficient to give the trial court power to set it aside, and was unnecessary to permit appeals from the action of that court;
It is, however, urged by the prisoner that the constitution provides that a person shall not be held to answer for such a crime, except on indictment of a grand jury (Art. 1, sec. 6). That the body which indicted him was not a legal grand jury; and.that, therefore, he cannot be constitutionally deprived of his right to assert that he was not so indicted. That may be so ; the prisoner did assert that he was not legally indicted, by his motion to set aside the indictment; and that was decided against him. We do not understand that there is any constitutional provision which allows a party always to appeal to the highest court, even when his grievance is that a constitutional .right has been infringed. When, and on what grounds, appeals shall be allowed are questions for the legislature.:. So that unless a right of appeal has been given from an order, refusing to set aside an indictment, we cannot hear that question. This paper was not a challenge to the array of grand juries, for none is allowed (Code Crim. Pro., sec. 258). And after indictment found there could plainly be no challenge to the grand jury individually (Sec. 239). So far as the indictment is concerned, the prisoner's remedies are those given in section 313. But if we could review the refusal to set aside the indictment, we should find no error. Proceedings are not affected 'by imperfection in matters of form (Code Crim. Pro. sec. 285). A grand jury is defined in section 223 ; the prisoner's allegation is that the persons who found the indictment were drawn by the officers, under claim »f law, from the petit jury box instead of the grand jury box. But if this be a ground of objection, it must be so under section 238, subdivision 1, Code of Criminal Procedure. And that section leaves it to the discretion of the court to discharge the panel. The court in which the indictment was found had jurisdiction. Persons were returned to that court as grand jurors, and were sworn and acted as such, and thus they formed a legal grand jury (Dolan agt. People, 13 Sup. Ct. N. Y., 494).
The prisoner having pleaded not guilty, a jury was ordered to be impanneled. Thereupon it appears the prisoner's counsel objected to the panel of jurors, and to each juror, upon the ground that chapter 532 of-the Laws of 1881 was unconstitutional, being a local act, &c., " and offered to substantiate the same by proof, which was objected to, sustained and an exception taken."
An objection to a panel of jurors and to each juror must have been intended as a challenge, that being the only mode known to the law of making such objection (Code Crim. Pro., sec. 359).
N ow, the first difficulty in regard to this challenge to the pan el is, that such a challenge must be in writing (Sec. 363). Mo written challenge appears. The so-called plea referred only to the grand jurors. The next difficulty is that no facts are stated sufficient to constitute a challenge. It is not alleged that the petit jurors were drawn under chapter 532 of the Laws of 1881. Again, none of the proceedings required by sections 365 and 366 were taken. So that here was no exception to the challenge (Sec. 364); a denial of the challenge (Sec. 366); a trial of the challenge (Sec. 377). We do not know whether the court held the challenge to be sufficient, or the allegations to be untrue. Mor does it even appear what evidence was offered, so that we can judge whether it was properly excluded or not.
If we overlook all these difficulties and suppose that the court held the challenge insufficient, was there any error ? A challenge to the panel can he founded only on a material departure, to the prejudice of the defendant, from the forms presented by the Code of Civil Procedure in respect to the drawing and return of the jury (Sec. 362). The other ground contained in that section is not claimed. The forms prescribed for the drawing and return of the jury are found in the Code Civil Procedure (Secs. 1043 to 1048). An examination of those sections will show that there is nothing in them on which this challenge could be based. It is not alleged that the clerk did not conduct the drawing of ju-rors in the very manner prescribed by these sections. His duty is to draw the jury from the box containing the ballots (Sec. 1027). These ballots he is previously to prepare (Sec. 1038). The right to challenge the panel, says nothing in express words as to a challenge for any material departure in respect to the preparing of the ballots. And the legislature may have thought that against the introduction of improper persons by the clerk, in preparing the ballots, the prisoner was sufficiently protected by his right to challenge individual jurors for cause (Code Crim. Pro., secs. 375 to 377).
Por if we overlook all the difficulties which we have seen stand in the prisoner's way on this appeal, and inquire what would have been his ground of complaint if he had properly presented it, we shall find it to be this: that the county clerk, in preparing ballots and putting them in the box under section 1038, Code of Civil Procedure, put in names which had not been selected by the proper officers. It is not claimed that a list had not been made out and filed with the clerk, or that he did not make his ballots from such list. But it is claimed that such list was not made out by the officers authorized to make the same; but was made by other officers claim ing the legal right. Hor is it pretended that there was any list from which the clerk could prepare ballots, except that list from which he did prepare them. How, then, can it be claimed that in drawing this jury the clerk departed from the forms of section 1047, Code of Civil Procedure. The legis lature may well have refused to give any right of challenge for any fault or error in the preparation of the jury list; provided only that the clerk properly drew the trial jury from the box of ballots-prepared by him.
Assume then, for the present, that the list of names of all persons believed to be qualified to serve as trial jurors was made up by the wrong officers; what is that to the prisoner ? If any juror drawn on the trial is objectionable, he can be challenged. This list is made up, and the system of drawing jurors by the clerk is adopted " to secure a due and uniform distribution of jury duty, and to guard the great body of jurymen from the fraud or favoritism of the drawing and summoning officers " (Friery agt. People, 2 Abb. Ct. App., 230). Challenges to the array existed formerly for the reason that there might be prejudice on the part of the sheriff. ¡Now since such prejudice cannot affect the drawing, these challenges have been limited as above stated (Code Crim. Pro., sec. 362), and there must be a departure u to the prejudice of the defendant." ¡No prejudice to the prisoner is' shown or suggested. These irregularities are of no consequence (Car agt. People, 80 N. Y., 500).
But further, if the question of the constitutionality of chapter 532, ¡Laws of 1881, were before us, we could not hold it to be unconstitutional. The restriction on the legislature contained in section 18, article 3 of the Constitution, is qualified by section 25 of the same act. The restriction does not apply to any bill or the amendments to any bill which shall be reported to the legislature by commissioners who have been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes. If this law is to be held unconstitutional, then it must be upon a finding of the fact that it was not so reported. Whether or not there were any such commissioners in 1881 is not decisive. They may have reported the bill several years before, although it was not passed by the legislature until 1881. We do not say that such is the fact; only that it is possible. Then the constitutionality of the law must depend, not on the construction of language which is a matter of law, and, therefore, of conclusive judicial decision, but on a question of fact, which may be found by one tribunal in one way and by another tribunal in another. On the trial of this present case, the court might, on the question of fact, have found that the commissioners did report the bill, and have held the law, therefore, constitutional. At the next court the same question may arise, and the court may find that the commissioners did not report the bill, and, therefore, hold the law unconstitutional.
When the constitution permitted the legislature to pass such a law, if reported to them by certain commissioners, it necessarily made the legislature the judges of the fact whether the law had been so reported. Their decision must be conclusive. No other rule would be tolerable. The constitutionality of laws cannot be permitted to depend on the possibly varying decisions of courts or juries on mere question of fact, especially on a fact as to which the legislature had special knowledge (Matter of N. Y. Elev. R. R., 70 N. Y., 351; People agt. Doolin, 33 N. Y., 279).
The judgment and conviction should be affirmed.
The same in the other case against the same prisoner.
Bockes, J. The defendant was indicted in the Albany county sessions, September, 1881, for the crime of grand larceny, committed in August of that year. He was tried at the March term of that court, 1882, was found guilty, and was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for the period of five years.
When arraigned he interposed objections to the finding of the indictment in various formsall, however, centering in this: that the grand jury which found the indictment was drawn from the names of persons selected by the recorder of the city of Albany, instead of from a list of names of persons selected by the supervisors of the county, and from the petit jury list; which proceeding, in that regard, was taken under and pursuant to section 1041 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by chapter 532 of the Session Laws of 1881; whereas, as was insisted, such section, as amended, was unconstitutional in so far as it provided for the selection of grand jurors in and for the county of Albany by the recorder of that city; hence that the grand jury should have been selected and drawn under and pursuant to the provisions of the Revised Statutes, which, as was claimed, remained in force.
The objections so urged against the indictment was overruled by the court and the defendant was put to his plea of not guilty.
The objection interposed was in the nature of a challenge to the array. . It went to the entire panel, and was based on on alleged vice or irregularity in the selection of the grand jurors by whom the indictment was found. It can make no difference as regards the examination of the question before the court, that the objection was made by formal plea, like a plea in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court or for misnomer. This was but a mode of presenting the question for decision. The point to be determined by the court was whether, on the alleged facts, the indictment was regularly found — whether the defendant was bound by the law to make answer to it, on the merits, as to his guilt or innocence. The mode of presenting the question is quite immaterial. Whatever may be the form of its presentation, the question is whether the objection, based on the alleged facts, was properly overruled. It is proposed, however, to examine the case in all its aspects, at least in so far as is needful to dispose of it as here presented.
The defendant's counsel insists that the question presented for decision must be considered under the provisions of the Revised Statutes; this, on the hypothesis that the act of 1881 {chap. 532) is unconstitutional and void, and that, as a consequence, the provisions of the Revised Statutes bearing on the subject remain in force. '
Now let this be conceded and let it be also admitted that the objection to the indictment is, in effect, a challenge to the array, and should be so considered, and the objection is met and answered by section 28 of the Revised Statutes (2 R. S., 724, marginal paging), which declares that no challenge to the array of grand jurors shall be allowed in any other cases than such as are specified in the last preceding section (27), which section (27) does not include the ground here relied on. As was said by Sellen, J., in Dawson agt. The People (25 N. Y., 404-405), this statute "limits the grounds of challenge by persons charged with crime to the prosecutor or complainant making the charge, and the witnesses to sustain it." This provision was doubtless intended to cover matters of singularity in obtaining the panel of grand jurors, recognizing the fact that the substantial rights of the accused could be and would be fully protected to him on the trial upon the indictment before the petit jury. If, therefore, it be assumed that the case is one of challenge to the array, and that the question raised is to be controlled by the provisions of the Revised Statutes, it follows that the objection urged is nullified by the sections above cited (Carpenter agt. The People, 64 N. Y., 483). Besides, it has been repeatedly decided that irregularities in the selection or drawing of grand jurors not affecting the substantial rights of the accused, as regards the question of his guilt or innocence, is not good ground of challenge to the array (Friery agt. The People, 2 Keyes, 424; Cox agt. The People 80 N. Y., 500-511; Dolan agt. The People, 64 N. Y., 485; Same case, in Sup. Ct., 6 Hun, 232 and 493). In Dolan's case the question was considered (as stated by judge Dajstiels), on what was relied upon as a plea in abatement (See, also, statement of the case 64 N. Y., 486-487). In this case judge Earl says: " Courts do not look with indulgence upon objections to irregularities in the mode of selecting or drawing grand jurors committed without fraud or design, which have not resulted in placing upon any panel disqualified jurors." But the defendant's counsel insists that these authorities relate to mere irregularities, and do not reach the case in hand, inasmuch as the ground of objection here is vital, such as (if admitted) depriving the array of the character of a legal panel. ¡Mow in Dolan's case, the ground urged was the same as is here urged, to wit: that the pretended grand jury which found the indictment was not a grand jury in and for the city and county (64 N. Y., 486-487); that it was not "lawfully created and organized" (6 Hun, 495); yet the objection was held inadmissible. The objection in that case was as " vital " and as much deprived "the array of the character of a legal panel " as in the present. I shall have occasion hereafter to refer more particularly to the ground of objection in Dolan's case. But attention is here called to the remarks of judge Eabl in that case. The learned judge says: " The plea contains no allegation of any corruption, dishonesty or unfairness on the part of any of the officers in selecting and drawing the grand jurors, or of any design to injure the defendant or any other person, and it contains no allegation that any of the persons who were upon the grand jury which indicted the defendant did not possess the qualifications of grand jurors, or that any person was upon the jury who would not have been there if all the forms of law which are claimed to have been disregarded had been complied with. It is not apparent how the alleged irregularities harmed the defendant, and it is certain that they had no relation whatever to the question of his guilt or innocence of the crime charged. Under such circumstances the indictment should be upheld, unless the facts pleaded point out some vital error." As above suggested, the objection there under consideration was no less vital than it is in this. The remarks of Mr. justice Daniels, in Dolan's case, when in this court, are in line with those of judge Eabl above quoted (6 Hun, 494; see, also, The People agt. Dolan, 6 Hun, 232, and Friery agt. The People, 1 Keyes, 424). From these and other cases it would seem, therefore, that these alleged errors urged by the defend ant as ground of objection to the indictment are untenable, inasmuch as it is not made apparent that he was or could be in any way injured or prejudiced by them.
But there is another answer to the objections- urged which seems entirely conclusive against their allowance.
The court in which the indictment was found had undoubted jurisdiction of the case. The list of names of persons to serve as grand jurors was made up from the right source — that is, from the body of the court — and the names of the persons drawn to serve as grand jurors were, as must be presumed? certified to the court in due form by the record. It is not pretended but that they were drawn by the proper officers; nor but that they were, one and all, duly qualified to serve and act as grand jurors in and for the county of Albany; nor but that they were honest, intelligent and impartial, were duly summoned and impanneled in due form, and in all respects performed the duties of grand jurors according to the forms of law. Considered as officers of the law to aid in the administration of justice in criminal cases, they constituted a defacto body in the exercise of legal functions, under color of lawful authority. So it was held in The People agt. Dolan (6 Hun, 232), that it was sufficient to maintain the authority of the grand jury to investigate criminal charges and find indictments valid in their nature, that the body acted under color of lawful authority, and according to the case of Thompson agt. The People (6 Hun, 135), it would not alter this conclusion even if the selection of the grand jurors involved, in the proceeding, the acts of an officer holding his office under an unconstitutional law. It was then decided that such officer must be deemed an officer de facto, whose acts could not be brought in question in a collateral proceeding between other parties. True, this latter decision was made with reference to the panel of petit jurors, but the principle thus declared is equally applicable to a case where like objection is urged to the panel of a grand jury. But the decision in Thompson's case meets and answers the precise point urged here, to wit: that the recorder of the city of Albany assumed to act and did act in the selection of the jury list without authority, under and pursuant to an unconstitutional law. It was then directed that a challenge to the array by the accused could not be sustained, even were it true that the panel was selected by the commissioner of jurors, appointed under an unconstitutional law; that such officer must be deemed to be an officer defacto, whose acts could not be brought in question in a collateral action or proceeding. It is the well settled rule that the title of an officer de facto cannot be assailed collaterally; that the acts of such officer are valid in so far as the public and third persons are concerned (Thompson agt. The People, 6 Hun, 138, and cases there cited ; Dolan agt. The People, 24 N. Y., 495 ; Carpenter agt. The People, 24 N. Y., 483; Dolan agt. Mayor, 68 N. Y., 278, 279; see, also, 5 Wait's Actions and Defenses, 7, and the many cases there cited). As above stated, it matters not that one of the officers, through whose instrumentality the jurors were obtained, held his position under an unconstitutional law. In Thompson agt. The People, a challenge to the array was interposed — the alleged ground thereof being that the panel of jurors was selected by Dunlap, acting as a commissioner of juror under appointment by the mayor of the city of Hew York, in pursuance of an alleged unconstitutional law. The district attorney demurred to the challenge, and it was disallowed. It was then said, " it is enough, in all cases, when such a question is raised collaterally, that the person acting as an officer is discharging the duties of the office under color of right, evidenced by his possession of the office, and by exercising its functions under the power of an appointment or election independently of the question of legal title; hence the court below was entirely right in holding that Dunlop's official acts could not in this case be questioned by challenge on the ground alleged." To the same effect are the remarks of Daniels, J., in Dolan's case (6 Hun, 499), where the objection urged was of the same character as in Thompsons case (64 N. Y., 483), and where the objection was raised by what was designated as a plea in abatement. A like objection was raised in Carpenter's case (64 N. Y., 483), to wit: That the act of the legislature under which Dunlop was appointed commissioner of jurors was unconstitutional. The court held that he was an officer de facto, whose acts were valid as to the public; that this validity of his appointment cannot be drawn in question in this collateral manner. In The State agt. Carroll (38 Conn., 449), it was decided that one acting under color of an appointment by or pursuant to a public unconstitutional law before it was adjudged to be such, was to be deemed an officer de facto, and that his acts as such were valid as to the public and third persons. This subject received a very elaborate examination in this case on the authorities, as well as those of older date, as of a more recent period. In The Commonwealth agt. McCombs (56 Penn., 436), it was held that a person who holds an office under the apparent authority of a statue as an officer de facto, whose title could not be assailed collaterally, even though the statute be unconstitutional. But it is said that the office of recorder was well filled by an officer holding under authority good both in fact and law; that it is not disputed that he was recorder and might well perform the duties pertaining to that office. But the point is urged that other rights and powers were attempted to be conferred on him by an unconstitutional law. The case, however, is not changed by this view of it; and for the reason that the recorder was an officer de facto as regards the duties imposed on him by the law here challenged •— as much so as if a new office had been thereby created and he had been appointed to perform its duties. He was not a usurper as regards the performance of those duties in any legal sense. A usurper is one who undertakes to perform official acts without .any color of right. Here the recorder acted certainly under color of right. His action had the sanction of an apparent law, duly certified to him and to the people as a valid law of the'state. It may, too, be here added that it stands undisputed that the legislature, under a certain condition or state of facts, had the constitutional right to pass precisely this law. How, every law which the legislature may pass is presumed, when duly certified as a law of the state, to he valid. To meet this point, "a fact was averred which, if proved, would, as was insisted, render the law unconstitutional. But proof, of such fact would be inadmissible (The People agt. Devlin, 33 N. Y. 269, and cases there cited; Matter of N. Y. Elevated R. R. Co., 70 N. Y., 351). In this latter case judge Earl puts the inquiry, " can the court take proof for the purpose of showing a statute, valid and regular upon its face, to be unconstitutional?" and gives a negative answer. Then, in executing such law, or in executing any law, indeed, duly certified as a valid law of the state, can it be maintained that the officer appointed to carry its provisions into effect acts, in so doing, without the semblance or color- of authority ? The cases above cited, and many others referred to in those cases, answer this question in the negative. It is repeatedly and repeatedly declared in the decisions of the courts that an unconstitutional law gives the semblance or color of authority to its provisions. There was nothing decided in Lambert agt. The People (76 N. Y., 220), in conflict with the cases above cited. The precise point here under discussion was not in that case; and as it seems the views of the several members of the court on the subject then considered were not in all respects in harmony. We conclude, therefore, that the objection here urged against the indictment was properly overruled; and this whether it be deemed to be a challenge to the array or considered as a plea in abatement. In either case the ground of objection must be held untenable.
So far the case has been considered without regard to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
But if the case is to be determined under the provisions of this Code, which went into effect on the 1st of September, 1881, before the indictment was found (see section 962), and admitting the invalidity of the law of 1881, because of its alleged unconstitutionality, thereby section 238, the objection, being a challenge to the panel or array, was inadmissible.
This section (238) declares that no challenge can be allowed to the panel or to the array of the grand jury; but provides that the court may, in its discretion, discharge the panel and order another to be summoned in certain specified cases. This section, however, has application to proceedings to be taken before indictment found. The proceedings permissible to the accused after indictment are provided for in subsequent sections. Section 312 provides that the defendant may, when arraigned, move the court to set aside the indictment, or may demur or plead thereto. Sections 312 and 313 declare in what cases only he may have the- indictment set aside. The specified grounds of such motion do not touch the case in hand. We are then brought to section 321, which declares that the only pleading allowed to the accused is either a demurrer or a plea. Section 322 declares the cases in which a demurrer may be interposed, and confines the demurrer to matters appearing on the face of the indictment. This section has here no application. Then section 332 provides for three kinds of pleas, to wit: Guilty, not guilty, and former conviction or aquittal. No other pleas are allowed by the Code. The objection in this case, therefore, considered even as a formal, technical plea of matter in abatement was inadmissible under the Code of Criminal Procedure. Thus, if it be admitted that the case is to be determined under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure,' the objection urged was properly overruled.
In view of the conclusions above reached, it becomes unnecessary to examine the question raised by the defendant's counsel as to the validity of the act of June 16, 1881 (chapter 532). We are of the opinion that the defendant was properly put to his plea to the merits.
He pleaded not guilty. On the trial, upon such plea and in the outset, the same objections were " interposed to the panel of the petit jury as had been previously urged against the panel of the grand jury, to wit: that the jurors had been selected from the body of the county, under and pursuant to the act of June 16, 1881, chapter 532, which act, as was claimed, was in violation of the constitution and void in so far as it provided for the selecting and drawing of jurors in and for the county of Albany. This was in effect, and in fact, a challenge to the array of the petit jury. Was this-objection or challenge properly overruled ? The same answer must be given as was above made to the objection to the panel of grand jurors, that is: the jurors were selected. from the right source — from the body of the county; they were duly drawn, summoned and returned to the court pursuant to the provisions of the law, by officers acting under the color of lawful authority; and they were in all respects duly qualified and competent to act as petit jurors in and for the county of Albany. According to the decisions above cited, the objection was properly disallowed, because the officers through whose action the jurors were selected, drawn and summoned were officers defacto, if not dejxtre • officers in possession of office, acting under color of lawful authority.
It should be added, perhaps, that section 562 of the Code of Criminal Procedure fully answers the objection interposed to the panel of trial jurors, if it be admitted that the case comes within its provisions.
It follows, therefore, that without considering the question as to the constitutionality of the act of 1881, the conviction and judgment appealed from must be affirmed.
Mem.— The decision in the case against the defendant for grand larceny disposes of this case also.
It should be noted, however, that this case is undeniably subject to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which went into effect before the offense charged in the indictment was committed.
Conviction and judgment affirmed.