The 1846 Constitution drew a distinction between the trial of impeachments and the review of cases on appeal, and established two separate courts a Court for the Trial of Impeachments and a Court of Appeals.
Article VI, section 2, of the Constitution of 1846, provides for a Court of Appeals composed of eight judges, of whom “four shall be elected by the electors of the state for eight years, and four selected from the class of justices of the Supreme Court, having the shortest time to serve.”
The Court of Appeals, New York’s highest-level court, hears civil and criminal appeals from the state’s intermediate appellate courts and, in some instances, directly from the trial courts.