Citing to New York State Appellate Division, Records & Briefs

SlovakDennis, can you give an exact URL ... considering that there are at least 5582 volumes that carry this title and that Google Books does not deliver the exact volume even when you query for it?

Once I access the book, there will be other comments.

Dennis, are you using and citing the full text? If so, can you send a screen shot of that p. 778 you are citing? 

• When I access the book using the full URL, a cover page says there are 905 pages in the book, but each case is numbered separately and I find no p. 778. 
• When I query Google Books for the case name, I get 4 or 5 hits but they are Snippet View only--basically from the index or table of contents--along with a message "Contents Unavailable."

Meanwhile, a PDF of the case seems to be downloadable from Thomson Reuter's Casetext at https://casetext.com/case/tretjakow-v-tkatschew-2?

SlovakDennis, this has been an interesting challenge! 

First, we need to consider that "36 AD 2d 905," which you positioned immediately after the case name and before the date—Tretjakow v. Tkatschew, 36 AD 2d 905 (1971. This is not a case number for that case. It is a shortform legal-style citation for the whole volume itself. 

You say you are using EE3, so turn to §13.2 "Citation Style Options: Legal Style & Academic Style." (For users of EE4, it's §14.2.) Read the section "Bluebook Style, Basic Pattern." Under that tripartitle system there are three parts to the citation:

VOL. NO. • NAME OF REPORTER (SERIES) • PAGE NO.

Ergo, Bluebook style for your volume would be

36 • AD [Appellate Division] 2d • 905

With the set you are using, because there is no overall pagination, the Bluebook style citation cites the total number of pages in the volume.

Using the Bluebook style, which is your volume’s common legal citation, if you Google for that "36 AD 2d 905"  you'll find that cases are alternatively cited in this format.

______ v ______, 36 AD 2d 905, Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, _____  Department, Apr 1, 1971.

However, you do not have physical access to this volume and (I assume) no access through any of the various legal databases that attorneys now use for old cases—nor do I.  Therefore, we are tasked with citing what we have used: the images at Google Books.

You need to cite two things: the book and the website where it is imaged. The basic format for books and websites is this:

(Books that are part of a series)

Author If Identified, Book Title in Italics, vol. no., series ID (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), specific item and/or page.

(Websites)

Author/creator If Needed, Website Title in Italics, descriptor if need (Place of publication = URL : Date of publication or access), specific item or frame.

EE’s citation would be this:

Layer 1:

Records & Briefs: New York State Appellate Division, vol. 223, 36 AD 2nd (New York City: Library of The New York Law Institute, 1971), Tretjakow v Tkatschew: Queens County Clerk's Index No. 3830–1969, page 40 of 73

Layer 2:

imaged, Google Books https://www.google.com/books/edition/Records_Briefs_New_York_State_Appellate/6VuYYx1PcLUC?hl=en&gbpv=1 : accessed February 5, 2025), located using search term "Vladimir I. Tretjakow, Ataman." 

Explanatory note:

The 905 pages of this book are not numbered; instead each case is individually paginated. There is no table of contents to locate a particular case; hence the need for a search term. 

Combined:

Records & Briefs: New York State Appellate Division, vol. 223, 36 AD 2nd (New York City:  Library of The New York Law Institute, 1971), Tretjakow v Tkatschew: Queens County Clerk's Index No. 3830–1969, page 40 of 73; imaged, Google Books https://www.google.com/books/edition/Records_Briefs_New_York_State_Appellate/6VuYYx1PcLUC?hl=en&gbpv=1 : accessed February 5, 2025), located using search term "Vladimir I. Tretjakow, Ataman.” The 905 pages of this book are not numbered; instead each case is individually paginated. There is no table of contents to locate a particular case; hence the need for a search term. 

There are also several issues we need to discuss with regard to your original draft:

New York State Appellate Division, Records & Briefs, vol. 223 (New York City: Library of New York Law Institute, 1971); digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com: accessed February 5, 2025), 778; Tretjakow v. Tkatschew, 36 AD 2d 905 (1971), for “Transcript of Proceedings, Supreme Court, Queens County, Trial Term, Part II.”

1.

The New York State Appellate Division did not author those transcripts. Those words appear on the title page as part of the title, specifically the subtitle.

2.

A book has page numbers. A legal case that is separately published has page numbers. Websites do not have page numbers.  They may or may not have frame numbers. 

• A citation to page 778 of the volume, if such a number existed,  should be in the layer in which you cite the volume—not the layer in which you cite the website.
• A citation to frame 778 at the website’s URL for that book, should be placed in your citation to the website. However, I was never able to find a frame that carried that number.

3.

Your third layer cites the case, but that identity of the case belongs in layer 1 where you cite the book.  That book, as we’ve established, does not have consecutive page numbers by which items can be found. It has multiple items (multiple cases) that are individually numbered.  Therefore, we cite the item and the page number within the item, in the Specific Item Field of the book citation.

4.

The cover page for the case identifies the Queens County case number. EE would include that as part of the case ID.