§ 184.Vacancy not to affect proceedings

Section 184 protects pending cases from a purely administrative disruption. If a judge or justice’s seat becomes vacant — through death, resignation, retirement, or any other reason — that vacancy does not affect an action or special proceeding already pending in that court. The case does not stall or restart because the office sitting over it is temporarily empty.

This matters because courts routinely experience turnover, and litigants should not bear the cost of a vacancy that has nothing to do with the merits of their case. Other law handles how a vacancy gets filled and how a new judge picks up a pending matter; Section 184 confirms that the vacancy itself is not, on its own, grounds to disturb the proceeding.