Pending actions and proceedings

§ 2611. Pending actions and proceedings. (a) No action or proceeding, civil or criminal, pending at the time when this act shall take effect, shall be affected or abated by the passage of this act or by anything herein contained. All actions or proceedings, civil or criminal, pending in the courts of special sessions of the towns of Babylon, Huntington, Islip, Smithtown and Brookhaven or pending before justices of the peace in the said towns on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred sixty-five, the date such courts are to be abolished, are hereby transferred to the district court of Suffolk county.

(b) For the purpose of the disposition of such actions and proceedings only, the jurisdiction of the district court of Suffolk county shall be deemed:

(1) expanded to that of the abolished court whenever necessary to sustain the jurisdiction of the district court of Suffolk county over such action or proceeding if the abolished court has jurisdiction of the same; and

(2) contracted to that of the abolished court so as to prevent the district court of Suffolk county from giving relief of such nature or in such amount as could not be given by the abolished court.

(c) Except as provided for in the foregoing, practice and procedure in such actions and proceedings shall be as if the same were instituted in the district court of Suffolk county after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred sixty-five. But if the court shall find that a practice or procedure is necessary to the disposition of such action or proceeding, the court may permit recourse to or completion of the same.

(d) All warrants theretofore issued by magistrates of the courts of special sessions of the towns of Babylon, Huntington, Islip, Smithtown and Brookhaven shall after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred sixty-five, be deemed valid warrants of the district court of Suffolk county and be returnable therein.