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N.Y. CVR Law § 72

This is the official text of N.Y. CVR Law § 72, part of New York’s CVR Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "CVR Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Term of imprisonment of civil prisoner

Official statutory text

§ 72. Term of imprisonment of civil prisoner. No person shall be\nimprisoned within the prison walls of any jail for a longer period than\nthree months under an execution or any other mandate against the person\nto enforce the recovery of a sum of money less than five hundred dollars\nin amount or under a commitment upon a fine for contempt of court in the\nnonpayment of alimony, maintenance, distributive awards or special\nrelief in matrimonial actions or counsel fees in a divorce case where\nthe amount so to be paid is less than the sum of five hundred dollars;\nand where the amount in either of said cases is five hundred dollars or\nover, such imprisonment shall not continue for a longer period than six\nmonths. It shall be the duty of the sheriff in whose custody any such\nperson is held to discharge such person at the expiration of said\nrespective periods without any formal application being made therefor.\nNo person shall be imprisoned within the jail liberties of any jail for\na longer period than six months upon any execution or other mandate\nagainst the person to enforce the recovery of a sum of five hundred\ndollars or over or for a longer period than three months where the\namount is less than five hundred dollars, and no action shall be\ncommenced against the sheriff upon a bond given for the jail liberties\nby such person. In computing the term of imprisonment time spent within\nthe prison walls of any jail and time spent within the jail liberties\nshall be included. Notwithstanding such a discharge in either of the\nabove cases, the judgment creditor in the execution, or the person at\nwhose instance the said mandate was issued, has the same remedy against\nthe property of the person imprisoned which he or she had before such\nexecution or mandate was issued; but the prisoner shall not be again\nimprisoned upon a like process issued in the same action or arrested in\nany action upon any judgment under which the same may have been granted.\nExcept in a case hereinbefore specified nothing in this section shall\naffect a commitment for contempt of court.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.