Series 9802
DISTRICT COURT (THIRD DISTRICT) [275]CASE FILES, 1851-1896214 cu. ft. and 528 microfilm reels
A separate agency history is available.
DESCRIPTION: An original complaint, summons, indictment or arrest warrant which initiate a legal action together with all legal papers subsequently filed in connection with the civil or criminal proceeding through disposition or dismissal of the case make up these case files. Case files document the legal process and the administration of justice in the Third Judicial District. Civil cases span the entire period and include suits to recover money, petitions for divorce, and writs of habeas corpus.
Criminal cases date from 1851 to 1882 and include both felonies and misdemeanors. Recurrent criminal offenses include robbery, burglary, theft, riot, malicious destruction of property, extortion, distribution of unlawful substances, contempt, treason, desertion, assault, murder, etc.
The court was required to hold at least four terms within the district each calendar year. Matters from throughout the district (several counties) were heard in Salt Lake City. Cases from Salt Lake County are most numerous but matters from outlying Summit and Tooele counties are common. During the early days of the territory, the Third Judicial District included current Utah counties (such as Iron and Utah) as well as extinct counties (e.g., Green River and Carson). A small number of case files from these locales are included.
According to federal and territorial statutes, the district court has jurisdiction in all matters not prohibited by law. The majority of these cases are civil matters. Suits to recover money owed to plaintiffs are the predominant type of action. These proceedings arise out of failure to honor promissory notes or other contract terms and non-payment of rent, lease payments, and court-ordered judgments. Property cases include disputed ownership, damage, and contested improvements. Petitions for divorce are also common. Other routine legal actions include voluntary withdrawal or dissolution of corporations as well as petitions for a writ of habeas corpus (a court order requiring that a prisoner be brought before a judge to decide the legality of his detention or imprisonment). Court business (grand jury lists and reports, orders summoning persons to serve as jurors, various writs, etc.) have also been assigned case numbers.
The Third District Court was restricted to adjudication of actions involving real property located within the Third Judicial District, those in which the defendant resides within the Third Judicial District, and those involving incidents occurring within the Third Judicial District. The court's appellate jurisdiction extends to all cases arising in probate, justice's, or U.S. Commissioners court. Upon receipt of an appeal, the district court conducted a complete retrial of the case. Certified copies of pertinent court documents were provided to the district court while the inferior court retained the original documents in its case file.
These case files document the legal process and the administration of justice in conjunction with civil and criminal cases. A civil case is a proceeding for the determination of a controversy between parties wherein rights are enforced or protected, or wrongs are prevented or redressed. A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which it is annexed, upon conviction, a prescribed punishment. Records and documents pertaining to a particular action were maintained by the court clerk, who was required to file pleadings and other legal papers for cases arising throughout the district. Collectively they constitute the case file.
A civil action commences with the filing of a complaint with the court or by service to the defendant of a summons together with a copy of the complaint. A criminal case is initiated with a complaint, information, indictment, or arrest warrant. The case file for a particular action includes the original complaint, summons, information, indictment, or arrest warrant together with all legal papers subsequently filed in connection with the court proceeding through disposition or dismissal.
Files for civil cases include such documents as subpoenas, bonds, depositions (or written testimony), demurrers (which are pleas for the dismissal of a lawsuit on the grounds that even if the statements of the opposition are true, they do not sustain the claim), interrogatories (a pretrial discovery tool in which written questions are propounded by one party and served to the adversary, who must answer by written replies made under oath), answers, counter claims, replies, motions, injunctions, petitions, affidavits (written statements made under oath before an officer of the court, notary public, or other authorized person), stipulations (an agreement between attorneys that concerns business before a court and is designed to simplify, shorten, or settle litigation and save costs), exhibit documents (written contracts, bills, receipts, etc.), notices, objections, citations, sheriff's certificates, judge's orders and rulings, judge's instructions to the jury, judge's findings of fact and conclusions of law, final decrees, judgments, executions (the process of carrying into effect a court's judgment, decree, or order), and an enumeration of court costs.
Transcripts (an official and certified copy of what transpired in court or at an out-of-court deposition) and exhibits (items of real evidence) appear infrequently in the case files. A small number of declaration of intention documents were filed with these records during the first fifteen years.
Criminal case files may include petitions to the court, complaints, transcripts of lower court proceedings, injunctions, warrants of execution and confinement, warrants of death, notices of appeal, subpoenas, affidavits, orders to show cause, court orders to the jury or defendant, trial evidence, court judgment, and an enumeration of costs.
Incidents of note include a complaint against leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following the "Utah War" alleging "insurrection, rebellion, and war" (People of the United States vs. Brigham Young, et al., December 30, 1858); and case number 1785 (Samuel L. Clemens vs. John T. Caine, Hiram B. Clawson, and Willie Gill, Februry 8, 1875) involving a suit filed by Clemens for copyright violation of the Mark Twain novel, Gilded Age.
ARRANGEMENT: Case files from late 1870 to statehood are arranged numerically by consecutive case number. They are enumerated 1 through 15,135. Cases created prior to adoption of this numbering system (or never incorporated) are filed chronologically by the year the court action commenced (1851-1873) and thereunder alphabetically by the plaintiff's personal surname or corporate name. The practice of the court assigning a unique case number when the papers were filed with the clerk began with cases filed in the early 1870s but was not fully instituted until 1874. As unnumbered files through 1873 are abundant, it appears probable that only selected cases from 1870 to 1874 were assigned numbers retroactively after the system was adopted. Files dealing with court business (writs calling jurors, grand jury lists and reports, etc.) were routinely assigned half numbers. Regular case files were inexplicably assigned half numbers occasionally as well. A letter was sometimes added to a case number to distinguish it from another (e.g., case 3 and case 3A). As criminal cases are considered an offense against the public, the plaintiff may variously be recorded originally as "People," "United States," or "Territory of Utah." In the interest of consistency, all such differentiations now are filed collectively as "People." Case numbers were assigned when the documents initiating the case were filed with the court clerk. Documents added subsequently to individual case files are arranged chronologically within the file.
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 found in series 3243, CASE INDEX, to find the unique case number corresponding to the appropriate case file. Case numbers for cases filed between 1871 and 1896 may also be found using the surname index in the JUDGMENT DOCKETS, series 1671. Confusion may arise when documents and case files are inscribed with two or more case numbers. It appears the district court experimented with one or more numbering systems in the early 1870s before finally adopting one. Cases on appeal may include the number first used by the inferior court as well as that later assigned by the district court. Sometimes a number was written in error and, later, corrected. On rare occasions, two separate cases were mistakenly assigned a single case number. Case numbers 35 through 61 and 63 through 100 were never assigned. The attached container list describes numbered cases at the box level while unnumbered cases and oversize items separated from the case file are described at the folder level. Folders often contain more than one case file. The contents of folders containing multiple case files are described listing only the names of the first and last plaintiff, separated by a dash (e.g., Abel-Ayers). In situations when a folder includes actions filed by a single plaintiff against numerous defendants, the name of the adverse party appears in brackets following the name of the plaintiff (e.g., People [Bates]-People [Wheeler]). Folders containing a single case file are described by the case title (e.g., People vs. Jones).
RELATED RECORDS: The CASE INDEX (1872-1896), series 3243, records the surnames or corporate names of plaintiffs and defendants involved in court actions and provides assigned case numbers. The assigned case number and filing date are recorded in the JUDGMENT DOCKETS (1871-1947), series 1671, which also include the book and page number for the corresponding judgment record. The proceedings of cases are documented in TERRITORIAL MINUTE BOOKS (1858-1896), series 1649.Series 3252, REGISTERS OF ACTIONS (1870-1958) of the Third District Court, contain a chronological list of the documents filed and fees paid in connection with these civil cases.
Series 82994, COPYRIGHT APPLICATIONS (1870-1879), were removed from this series.
Files of cases adjudicated in Salt Lake County after statehood are found in series 1622, CIVIL CASE FILES (1896-1969). Files of cases adjudicated in Tooele country are located in series 83312, CIVIL CASE FILES (1896-[ongoing]). Series 373, CASE FILES (1850-1896), include the originals of cases appealed to the district court, copies of which appear in this series.
Series 1663, ABSTRACTS OF JUDGMENT (1889-1965), include information on those cases which, due to unsatisfied judgments, result in liens, garnishments, and further action by the court.
Series 3568, JUDGMENT CASE FILES (1884- ), document the final judgment in civil cases.
Series 3944, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL DOCKET BOOK OF THE PROBATE COURT (1852-1896), contains civil and criminal minutes of these types of cases for Salt Lake County until 1860.
Series 6545, CIVIL CASE TRIAL CALENDARS (1871, 1879-1892), list these cases as they were arranged for trial in court.
Series 6836, TERRITORIAL CRIMINAL CASE FILES (1882-1896), contain criminal case files filed after 1882.
Series 11381, JUDGMENT RECORD BOOKS (1870-1948), summarize the proceedings and final judgment of the action taken in these cases.
Additional habeas corpus petitions are found in series 14211, HABEAS CORPUS CASE FILES (1895-1907).
Series 82995, SALT LAKE COUNTY CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE FILES (1889-1895), include cases appealed to the district court originating in the U.S. Commissioners Court.
FINDING AIDS: The majority of these case files are indexed in series 3243, CASE INDEX (1872-1896), see series inventory. This is an index to plaintiffs. A planned index to the un-indexed civil cases (1851-1872) will be merged with an existing list of defendants in criminal cases (1851-1882) compiled by archives staff in 1993 to form a comprehensive register. A research guide entitled "Judicial/Court Records at the Utah State Archives" is available for patron use.
CUSTODY HISTORY: Throughout the territorial period, case files were created and maintained by the clerk appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the judge of the district court. At statehood, the Salt Lake County Clerk was constitutionally designated as ex-officio clerk of Third District Court in and for Salt Lake County. The county/district court clerk maintained custody of the case files until their transfer to the Utah State Archives between 1982 and 1985.
PROCESSING NOTE: Since 1983, case files have been listed as permanent records in the records retention policy of the Utah Judicial Council. Microfilming of the original records was authorized by the court clerk. Microfilming of case files (1851 to 1896) for reference use was done between 1998 and 2001. When it wasn't possible to complete microfilming of a lengthy case file before coming to the end of a roll, the contents of the file are continued on the subsequent roll(s). Occasionally the same case file will appear on two reels. This occurred when the final case or two filmed on one reel were inadvertently refilmed at the beginning of the next reel. Items too large for the legal size folders (maps of mining claims, newspapers, etc.) have been removed to oversize enclosures. When an item has been removed, a separation notice has been placed in the case file and the action has been noted in the container list. A small number of cases filed after the adoption of the numbering system apparently were never assigned case numbers. These files have been integrated with the numbered case files and are grouped together immediately following the target (separator sheet) indicating the year in which legal action was commenced (1874, 1875, 1884, 1888, and 1890 through 1895). Archival processing of these records was completed in July 1996 by W. Glen Fairclough, Jr. Assistance with physical processing was provided by Val E. Wilson and other members of the Arrangement and Description section.
PREFERRED CITATION: Cite the Utah State Archives and Records Service, the creating agency name, the series title, and the series number.
GAPS: Numerous case files are missing. All years are accounted for but occasionally a cluster of cases is unaccounted for. The largest such group (nearly 600 cases) includes cases 13,911 through 14,505 which date from November 1894 to May 1895. Random individual missing cases make up the bulk of the gaps. Case numbers 35 through 61 and 63 through 100 were never assigned.
CONTAINER LIST
See PDF file for full container list.
