1801-1890
Hiram Gray served in 1851, 1859. Commissioner on Appeals, 1870-1875. Born in Salem, Washington County, N.Y., in 1801. Union College graduate, 1821. State senator, 1836. Elected state supreme court justice 1847, reelected in 1851. While on the Court of Appeals, he authored Lawrence v Fox (20 NY 268 [1859]), the landmark opinion on third-party beneficiary law. Died in Elmira, N.Y., May 6, 1890. His portrait is hanging in the Court of Appeals anteroom, north wall.
This biography appears in The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History, ed. Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007). It has not been updated since publication.