Series 373

SALT LAKE COUNTY (UTAH). PROBATE COURT [959]

CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE FILES, 1852-1887.
39 microfilm reels.

A separate agency history is available.

DESCRIPTION: In 1852, the Utah Territorial Legislature provided that the Probate Court should have jurisdiction not only in estate and guardianship matters, but original jurisdiction in civil, criminal, and chancery cases. The Probate Court could act as an appellant court to the Justice of the Peace Courts in the County, and decisions made in the Probate Court could be appealed to the District Court. This series includes those cases handled by the Probate Court which are not probate or estate cases. Civil cases include primarily divorce, debt, replevin, damages, delinquent tax collections, contract and property disputes, evictions, and other case types. Criminal cases include murder, larceny, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and contempt of court charges, as well as others. Other case types include appeals, habeas corpus hearings, and inquests into deaths. In 1874, the federal Poland Act revoked the jurisdiction of the Probate Court over all but divorce and probate cases. In 1887, the federal Edmunds-Tucker act revoked Probate Court jurisdiction in divorce cases, and with that Act, the creation of this series ended.

Generally, case files include a number of discrete documents. These documents may include an initiating petition, summons and subpoenas issued to the parties in the case and to witnesses and potential jury members, bonds, exhibits, statements of fees, and other documents created and filed with the Court during the process of the trial action. Criminal cases may also include grand jury indictments, jury verdicts, and orders of commitment to the penitentiary. Civil cases may include affidavits of publication of summons in those cases where the defendant was not served personally, as well as decrees detailing the disposition of the case. Appeals may include the transcript of the proceedings of the lower court. Some early cases include copies of the minutes of the proceedings.

This series also includes items that are not case files as such, but individual documents filed with the court. For example, affidavits of slave ownership or other matters may have been filed with the court and are represented in this series. Occasionally documents such as travers jury subpoenas were at some point separated from the case file, and where identification of those records could not be made, the document is filed separately. Grand juries often were called quarterly to handle multiple cases before the court, and documents related to the quarterly grand jury proceedings which could not be identified as belonging to a specific case are filed together. Individual pieces of correspondence which are not related to a case file before the court may also be included as a separate file.

Divorces make up the largest portion of these case files. Prior to 1878, Utah Territory had one of the most liberal divorce laws in the United States and did not require residency in order to obtain a divorce within the territory. A simple statement that the married couple could not live in peace and union together was sufficient grounds for the granting of a divorce decree. As such, once the establishment of the railroad system provided regular access to the territory in 1869, the Probate Court handled many divorces for persons who could not meet the stricter laws regarding the granting of divorces in their home states. In 1878, the territorial Legislature changed the law to require residency, thereby decreasing significantly the number of divorces handled by the Probate Court.

ARRANGEMENT: Case files are arranged chronologically based on the filing date of the initiating petition prior to 1872. Starting in 1872, case files are arranged numerically by case number, with case numbers being assigned roughly chronologically based on the filing date of the initiating petition.

For civil case files filed prior to 1872, case dates are based on the clerk's or judge's filing date written on the complaint. If that is not available, the filing date of the initiating petition as recorded in the minutes is used. If neither of those dates are available, the date used is either the date the complaint was signed, or the date of the first surviving document filed with the court. For criminal cases filed prior to 1872, dates are based on when the indictment was presented to the court, if that date can be determined. If the date of the indictment is not apparent, or if no indictment was filed, the date of the initiating complaint is used or the date of the first surviving document filed with the Probate Court.

RESEARCH NOTE: For cases prior to 1872, the numbers written in ink on the top right corner of most documents were case numbers assigned to the files sometime after creation and prior to processing. These case numbers are not supported by the minute books, minute book indexes, or by the case documents themselves which frequently include different case numbers on documents belonging to only one case file, or one case number on documents belonging to several different cases. These numbers should be ignored as they do not reflect the original order of the case files.

For the most part, case files are not complete pictures of the case. Many motions and judgments that today would be represented by a separate document were only recorded in the minutes. In many instances, the disposition of the case was not kept as a distinct document and so cannot be found in these files. Some of the documents filed may not have survived, so the user is advised to consult series 3944, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE DOCKET BOOKS for additional information. Cases involving the same individuals in close time frames may have documents relevant to both cases in only one file, that usually being the first one.

RELATED RECORDS: Series 3944, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE DOCKET BOOKS, acts as records of actions to most cases between the years of 1852 and 1887. The earliest volumes in this series constitute a record of the proceedings in the cases and are more detailed. Series 3939, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE MINUTE BOOKS, documents the daily proceedings of the Court in these matters for the years 1860 through 1884.

FINDING AIDS: An index to the names of persons and/or corporate bodies who were parties to the actions in these files has been created. The index entries include columns for the party's name, title, whether the party was a plaintiff or defendant, the case number, the box and folder number, the case type, filing date, and opposing party. Some civil and criminal case files handled by the Probate Court are only recorded in the minute books, and some are only in the case files series. Those recorded in the minute books are not included in this index.

To use the index, the researcher might find it helpful to know some of the procedures used in the creation of the index. For example, the spelling of certain names was not always consistent throughout the documents in the files. Generally the manner of spelling was chosen from the person's signature if available. If the signature was not available, the most commonly-used form was taken for the index. Given the inconsistencies in spelling, researchers may find it helpful to search the electronic version of the index for a first name if the party for whom they are searching had an uncommon first name. Corporate names are in the surnames field, and for those persons with unknown portions of their name, the relevant field is left blank.

The title field is used with names which include a designation such as Sr., Jr., or Mrs. It is also used for those cases in which a party is acting as an agent, trustee, estate executor, or in an official government capacity such as assessor or sheriff. The title field is frequently used with company names for "doing business as" (dba) in those cases where both the name of the company and each individual partner are entered separately as parties to the case.

Case file types were determined by what the documents themselves are labeled. Some exceptions include those terms that are not in common modern usage and are not particularly descriptive of the case type. For example, many documents are labeled as being "bills in chancery." Those case types were modified to describe the issue involved, such as property or land title disputes. Many dept collection and replevin cases were labeled "in assumpsit demand" and those too have been modified to a more descriptive term. Other cases do not include a specific criminal charge or civil case. For those cases the field for case type was left blank, or a case type was chosen which would be the term most commonly used for other cases involving similar issues.

The field for opposing party contains only the last name of individuals. In cases in which the opposing party consists of two persons, the field contains both of their names (e.g. Jones & Smith). In the case of more than two opposing parties, the field includes the name of the first one listed on the complaint followed by an et al (e.g. Jones et al). When the opposing party consists of a partnership or business followed by the partners' names, only the business name is listed in the field.

PROCESSING NOTE: Archival processing of this series was completed by Arlene Schmuland in May 2000. Documents were moved into appropriate case files, and an electronic index to the case files was created during this procedure. The documents had been microfilmed prior to processing, and with the amount of reorganization of records necessitated by processing, the filming was deaccessioned. The series was refilmed in July 2001 and the container list updated at that time. After filming the hard copy was transferred to the Salt Lake County Archives.

PREFERRED CITATION: Cite the Utah State Archives and Records Service, the creating agency name, the series title, and the series number.

CONTAINER LIST

See PDF file for full container list.