Series 6071

DESCRIPTION: The Civil Case Indexes record the names of plaintiffs and defendants involved in civil actions and provide assigned case numbers, facilitating clerical management of and access to the civil case files.

Information about most cases is limited to the name of the plaintiff, the name of the defendant, and the case number. The cause of action is mentioned only in proceedings pertaining to court business (grand jury lists and reports, orders summoning persons to serve as jurors, etc.), applications for extraordinary writs (habeas corpus, mandamus, and certiori), and petitions for voluntary withdrawal or corporate dissolution. Such cases are preceded by the notation "In the matter of . . ." and are grouped together in a section under the letters IN.

While sitting in Salt Lake City, the Third District Court is restricted to adjudication of civil actions involving real property located within Salt Lake County, those in which the defendant resides in Salt Lake County, and those involving incidents occurring in Salt Lake County.

ARRANGEMENT: The successive volumes in which the indexes were kept between 1896 and 1968 were arranged chronologically. Most cover more than one year. Separate volumes indexing plaintiffs (1896–1921) and defendants (1896–1929) were originally maintained. The practice of including both parties together in the same index volume began in 1921. Index entries within individual volumes are roughly alphabetical by the surname of the plaintiff or defendant, with the initial two letters of the surname serving as the basis for indexing.

RESEARCH NOTE: The case number assigned by the court is essential to locate the desired case file. Researchers should first consult the indices to plaintiffs and defendants to find the unique case number corresponding to the appropriate case file. Prior to 1921, plaintiffs and defendants were indexed in separate volumes. Although both parties were indexed together in a single volume between 1921 and 1968, the practice of indexing defendants in a separate volume continued until 1929 resulting in an overlap for a nine- year span. Each page of the combined plaintiff and defendant indexes is divided in half, with information recorded under the appropriate heading. The plaintiff indexes appear on the left-hand side of the page while the defendant indexes are found on the right-hand side. Entries for a party may be inconsistent. Variations in spelling, acronym use, abbreviation, punctuation, form, etc., are common. For example, Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution may be indexed as Zions Co-op Mercantile Inst. or Z.C.M.I. An alternate way to find a desired case number is through the internal surname indexes in the JUDGMENT DOCKETS, series 1671.

RELATED RECORDS: The CIVIL CASE FILES (1896–[ongoing]), series 1622, as well as the CIVIL CASE FILES (SEALED) (1957–1969), series 12628, are indexed by the CIVIL CASE INDEXES (1896–1969). CASE FILES (1852–1896) of civil cases adjudicated in Salt Lake County during the territorial period are in series 9802. The CIVIL CASE INDEX on microfiche, series 14260, encompasses cases filed between 1969 and 1988. Civil case numbers are also included in the CIVIL JUDGMENT DOCKETS (1871–1947), series 1671, which provides an alternate way to find a desired case number via the internal surname indexes. A computer index maintained by the court for cases filed since 1989 is available in the office of the court clerk.

FINDING AIDS: A research guide entitled "Using Court Records" is available for patron use.

CUSTODY HISTORY: The CIVIL CASE INDEXES were created and maintained by the Salt Lake County Clerk, who was constitutionally designated as ex-officioclerk of the Third District Court in and for Salt Lake County. Custody of court records was transferred to the new district court clerk in 1989 when legislative action relieved Salt Lake County of the administrative responsibility for the district court. Twenty volumes of the original typewritten indexes were transferred to the archives in October 1993.

PROCESSING NOTE: Indexes were designated as a permanent record by Records Disposition Request 68-3, which also authorized microfilming and destruction of the original documents. The records retention policy of the Utah Judicial Council reprinted in the 1983 state retention schedule first specified a nine-year retention before microfilming. The CIVIL CASE INDEXES were microfilmed by Salt Lake County in 1975 and 1976. A previously unfilmed defendant index (1896–1910) was filmed by the Archives in May 1994. Original index volumes were destroyed by the archives in 1994, according to the retention policy. These records were archivally processed by W. Glen Fairclough, Jr., in May 1994.

CONTAINER LIST